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The UT and UConn men will renew in 2010 a basketball series that has been previously made famous by the schools’ two women’s programs.

The schools have reached an agreement on a two-year, home-and-home series that will commence during the 2010-2011 season.  The first game will find the Vols travelling to Storrs in 10-11, with the Huskies making the trip to Knoxville in 11-12.

You have to give Bruce Pearl credit for continuing to schedule, particularly after last season, when it seemed the Vols were penalized for their strength of schedule by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee when they received a No. 9 seed.

This is great for the men’s program, and great exposure to boot.  Now if the Vols can only get North Carolina or Duke on the schedule.

Josh Selby, the No. 1 rated point guard in the country in the class of 2010, has publicly de-commited to play basketball for the Vols.

This is a huge blow for the Vols, but not a complete surprise. Selby, who hails from

Josh Selby

the Baltimore area, has previously played for famed DeMatha High, but is transferring to another Baltimore-area school for his senior season.

When high profile out-of-state prospects like Selby commit, it is usually much more shaky than if the player is from in-state.

Once again, Bruce Pearl and the Vols find themselves missing out on their No. 1 target in a recruiting class.  Two years ago, it was Memphis’ Elliot Williams who ultimately signed with Duke, and last year it was Leslie McDonald, also from Memphis, who eventually signed with North Carolina.

In both prior instances, Pearl did not appear to have a back-up plan in place when he lost both Williams and McDonald. It will be interesting to see if the Vols can make any impact now on another highly touted five-star point guard, Joe Jackson from Memphis, who they have also recruited hard.

The Vols desperately need a point guard.  They desperately need one now.

One could argue that Selby’s commitment to Tennessee was the biggest since Bernard King.  Selby to Tennessee represented the program’s best chance of elevating itself to the highest level ever in the history of UT basketball.

This is a big setback.  If Selby ultimately lands at Kentucky, it will be even bigger.

In baseball parlance, Bruce Pearl is four for four.  Four seasons at Tennessee.  Four new contracts.

Pearl’s latest contract, however, and the circumstances surrounding it, is the one that is the most interesting.

There’s no denying or arguing the fact that each of Pearl’s new contracts after his first three seasons at Tennessee were justified.  For Pearl quickly took Tennessee from a basketball afterthought to SEC Eastern Division Champions and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament in his first season.  He followed that up with back-to-back NCAA Sweet 16 appearances, including an SEC Championship and the program’s first-ever No. 1 ranking in 2008.

Last season was a little different, though.  The Vols, who were picked in the preseason to win their second straight SEC championship, failed to do so, sputtered down the stretch, and lost in the NCAA’s first round as a No. 9 seed to Oklahoma State.

Based on last season’s results, Pearl was not about to receive a new contract from athletic director Mike Hamilton.  But then Memphis came calling and that changed everything.

All of sudden, the Vols faced not only losing their basketball coach, but to one of its fiercest rivals also.  Hamilton, to his credit, didn’t let Memphis’ courtship of Pearl last very long, agreeing in principle with Pearl to a new contract just a couple of days following Memphis’ initial expression of interest in Pearl.

As it turns out, Pearl’s new contract is not great shakes in terms of additional money or years.  Pearl received a 9.5% raise and a one-year extension over his previous contract.  Over the course of the new six-year deal, Pearl will average  making about $2.32 million per year, compared to John Calipari’s $3.7 million per year at Kentucky and Billy Donovan’s $3.5 million per season at Florida.  Not chump change, but not a huge increase, either.  Memphis was reportedly prepared to offer Pearl approximately $3 million per year.

What Pearl’s new contract appears to be more about is his assistants.

With Lane Kiffin’s arrival has come an astronomical increase in assistant coaches salaries for the football program.  Monte Kiffin will make $1.2 million this year and Ed Orgeron will make $650,000, to name a couple of examples.

With that kind of money being thrown around by the athletic department for assistant coaches, it’s no wonder that Pearl wanted a bigger piece of the pie for his assistants.  After all, his assistants have at least been part of a program that has coached and won a game.

Pearl’s new deal reportedly calls for his assistants to receive a raise commensurate with Pearl’s 9.5% raise.  Given Pearl’s and the basketball program’s success during the last four years, it’s hard to argue that one.

The best thing about the Pilot Rocky Top Summer League is that it’s over.  The second best thing about it is that it’s only three weeks long.

I question how effective the league is for the players when the scores are routinely triple digits with no defense being played.  Defensively, it looks a lot like the regular season Vols.  Any organized basketball activity that encourages such poor defensive play should be eliminated.

UT point guard Bobby Maze was the second leading scorer in the Rocky Top League this summer averaging 35.7 points per game.  Last season, he averaged 8.2 points per game.  Scotty Hopson was the leading scorer in the league this summer with a 37.1 ppg average.  Last season, he averaged 9.2 ppg.  Brian Williams broke out by scoring 18.6 ppg in the summer league.  Last season, he averaged five ppg.  You get the point.

I can think of a lot better and more productive ways that the Vols could be spending their time this summer, and hopefully they are.  Here’s a rundown on a few of the key returning Vols next season and how they should be spending most of their basketball time this summer…

Wayne Chism – Should be working primarily on a low-post, two handed jump shot (fade away acceptable) pivoting to the left when he shoots.  Wayne does have a nice lefthanded jump hook, but he would be more consistent with a two-handed shot.  And he has the size and athleticism to get the two-handed shot off.  I’ve seen him shoot perhaps one of these in three years.  It should become one of the key shots in his offensive repertoire.  Could enhance his points per game average by at least six.

Scotty Hopson – Weights, weights and ballhandling.  Scotty’s biggest drawback last season was his lack of physical strength and his propensity to lose the ball in traffic when defenders challenged his outside shot.  He needs to get much stronger to fend off defenders in the lane to get the ball effectively to the square. Scotty is athletic, make no mistake, but he needs to get much more physical.

Tyler Smith – Needs to work primarily on his mid-range game, eight to 10 feet from the basket.  Needs to be able to shoot a quick shot from this range facing the basket.  At his size, he needs to utlize his quickness more and become more of an offensive threat from mid-range, not under the basket, and not behind the three-point line.

Cameron Tatum – Needs to put up a minimum of 500 perimeter shots per day.  Needs to refine and refine his outside stroke.  Consistency, consistency, consistency.  Only comes from repetition.

Bobby Maze – Needs to work on going to his left, beating pressure with his lefthand, and improving his passing skills.

No question about it, all of the Vols have work to do.  And they are better served honing those skills in disciplined workouts.  Scrap the summer league.

With the recent hirings of John Calipari at Kentucky and Anthony Grant at Alabama, the bar for success in the Southeastern Conference has been raised considerably.

The SEC’s first $4 million-per-year basketball coach, Calipari, will certainly up the ante in the SEC East and the conference in total, for that matter.

Not since the days that Joe B. Hall roamed the sidelines at Kentucky will the Wildcats be so formidable in personnel.  Hall may not have been the best bench coach, but he was one of the best recruiting head coaches of his day, and the Wildcats were loaded with All-Americans under Hall.

With Calipari now at the helm at Kentucky, he will no doubt begin to recruit the kind of players to Kentucky that the Bluegrass faithful haven’t seen since the Hall years.

In less than two months on the job, Calipari has already elevated Kentucky’s 2009 recruiting class to fourth-best in the nation with two April signees, including 6-9, five-star center DeMarcus Cousins.

There’s no disputing the fact that Calipari can recruit.  In three of his last four seasons at Memphis, Calipari’s recruiting classes each ranked in the top six in the country.  And had Calipari not bolted for Kentucky, it would have been four out of five.  But now it’s four out of five with the last class coming at Kentucky.

And you can say what you want about Calipari’s ability to coach, but you can’t deny the fact that he and Billy Donovan are the only coaches in the SEC to coach in a national championship game.

Perhaps the best hire of the season was one that garnered virtually no national attention, but Anthony Grant’s hiring at Alabama will jump-start the Tide basketball program into the national limelight in a hurry.

My inner coaching circle all tell me that Grant is the real deal, and that again is bad news for the rest of the SEC. 

Grant was a long-time assistant to Donovan at Florida, but left three years ago to become the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth, where he led the Rams to a 76-25 record in three seasons, including two NCAA Tournament appearances.

A go0d coach at Alabama can have a great program and can do so by recruiting successfully in a 150-mile radius of Tuscaloosa.  Many may be too young to remember the great C.M. Newton teams at Alabama in the 70s or the Wimp Sanderson teams in the 80s and early 90s, but Alabama had some great basketball teams back then with nary a player outside the state of Alabama.

Alabama will not be on the national radar to start the next college basketball season, but the Tide will win the SEC West next year and will be ranked in the nation’s Top 20 by no later than late February.

Two of the SEC’s most storied basketball programs are on their way back in a hurry.  What’s the rest of the SEC to do?

(This is the final part of a three-part series on the current state of  Tennessee’s men’s basketball program.)

In its fourth season under Bruce Pearl, the Tennessee men’s basketball team won the SEC East and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

But it wasn’t a typical season for a Pearl team at Tennessee in 2008-09.

The Vols lost a double-digit number of games (13) overall and six in the SEC, the most conference losses ever for a Pearl-coached team at Tennessee.

It was said by Pearl on several occasions during the course of this past season that his team wasn’t tough enough…and Pearl was right.

The Vols were beaten up several times, most notably by Kansas in the pre-conference season, and by Kentucky twice during the regular season.  Even Gonzaga, a team not typically known for its physicality, took it to Tennessee twice this season with its aggressive play.

What was clearly missing from the Tennessee team this season was a noticeable advantage in terms of physical strength versus its opponents.

Not only is Tennessee losing the battle of physical toughness in its own conference, it is losing it to many of the nation’s Top 25 teams as well.

Just look at the most recent Final Four.  North Carolina, Michigan State, UConn and Villanova were all big, strong, athletic teams.  Tennessee was not in the same league with these teams, either on the court or in the weight room.

Even in the SEC, I would have to rank the Vols no better than fifth in terms of physical strength this past season behind LSU, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.  And, oh by the way, the Vols were 2-4 against those teams this year.

By now, Pearl’s early morning weight-room sessions with his team are well-documented, but looking at the physical stature of most of the guys on the team, I think you have to ask yourself what are they truly getting done during those sessions?

If you believe the official height and weight measurements of the team provided by the sports information department, you have to wonder.

At 6-7 and 215 pounds, Tyler Smith is no bigger now than he was when he joined the team as a sophomore when he was also listed at 215 pounds.

Wayne Chism has actually lost three pounds since he came to UT as a freshman.  Josh Tabb has added three pounds.  J.P. Prince hasn’t added a pound.  Cameron Tatum is 6-6, but weighs under 200 pounds.

When he first arrived at Tennessee, Pearl said fans would quickly notice a difference in the physical appearance of his players.  He said they would be cut, strong and well-defined.

If you look at the players who have been in the program for at least two years, it’s clear that it’s not the case.

I found it interesting, enlightening even, when Lane Kiffin was hired as the new football coach that one of the first things he did was hire a new strength coach.  Hmmm.

If Pearl and the Vols want to return to Top 25 program status in college basketball, they must begin to get it done in the weight room.

A complete re-evaluation of the strength program for Tennessee basketball is in order.  The Vols must get stronger to get better.

I will have more to say about Pearl’s recent association with the Memphis job and his new contract when the details of the new contract are released.  I will reserve commentary about it until then.

In Part One of this series, a close examination of Bruce Pearl’s signees and their contributions to the program were discussed.  But that is only one side of the recruiting equation.

Perhaps equally as important or damaging as the case may be, are the players that get away that contribute significantly at other schools.

This is particularly significant in Tennessee’s situation, and Pearl’s case specifically. 

As was documented in Part 1 of this series, while the Vols have signed too many players in Pearl’s first four years that have missed, Pearl and the Vols have also missed on several players, most notably in-state players, who at least in hindsight, could have helped the Vols immeasurably, particularly this past season.

 The following is my list of the top 5 in-state players who Tennessee passed on during the recruiting process who have gone on to have significant careers at competing Division I programs:

Terrico White, Memphis (Ole Miss) – SEC Freshman of the Year and second-team All-SEC. Fourth leading scorer in conference play with 18.4 ppg average.

Terrence Oglesby, Cleveland (Clemson) - Started 31-32 games for the Tigers this season as a sophomore. Third leading scorer with 13.2 ppg average. Third in ACC with 92 three-point field goals made this season. Shot 38.8% from three.

Alex Renfroe, Hermitage, TN (Belmont) – Averaged 16.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game this past season.  Was named  Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year.  Shredded Tennessee for 30 points in a game in Knoxville back in December, and singlehandedly led the Bruins to near upset of Duke in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

Barry Stewart, Shelbyville (Mississippi State) - Started all 36 games this season, averaging 13.4 points per game. Shot 38.8% from three in conference play.

Gerald Robinson, Nashville (TSU) – Fifth-leading scorer in the Ohio Valley Conference this past season averaging 17.8 points per game.  Has scored more than 1,000 career points in just two seasons for the Tigers.

Note that Elliott Williams (Duke), Maurice Miller (Georgia Tech) and Willie Kemp (Memphis) did not make the list.  Pearl and his staff recruited each of these players hard.  They just chose to go elsewhere.  I can’t fault Pearl for that.

But the failed recruitment of Williams, Miller and Kemp does point to one strategic miscalculation on Pearl and his staff’s part when it has come to recruiting.

Often, Pearl and his staff have focused so heavily on a few key recruits that they didn’t have a backup plan when these players selected other schools.

Terrico White at Ole Miss is a perfect case in point.  White was offered a scholarship by Arkansas, Georgia State, Middle Tennessee and Ole Miss.  The Vols didn’t  recruit White, and they certainly didn’t offer.  You tell me. Do you think Terrico White could have helped Tennessee this year?  Next year?

Same with Terrence Oglesby at Clemson.  Grew up in Cleveland, Tenn., less than 100 miles from Knoxville, core Big Orange country.  Phenomenal three-point shooter. Made 92 three’s this past season.  Not recruited by Tennessee.

Admittedly, Pearl has succeeded beyond even the most optimistic of Vol baskeball fans in the aggregate during his first four seasons at Tennessee.

No one could have imagined the Vols winning the SEC East in three of Pearl’s four years.  No one could have imagined the Vols would be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament in two of those four seasons.  No one could have imagined that Thompson-Boling Arena would be virtually sold out for every game the past two seasons.

However, there’s no denying the program took a step backward this year.  The Vols lost 13 games, dropped out of the Top 25 for most of the season, and were a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the lowest seed ever for the Vols under Pearl.

Pearl even had to change the way his team played this year.  He called off the press, slowed the game down, and the Vols became a much more methodical half-court offensive team.

There are reasons these things happened this year. It wasn’t a fluke or simple aberration.  These things happened this year largely because Pearl and his staff have missed badly, for the most part, in recruiting the last four years.

So how does Pearl fix the recruiting problems?  He must address two issues.

First, he must cast a broader net and have contingency plans in place when or if any of his top recruiting targets choose other schools.

Secondly, he has to recruit the state of Tennessee much more seriously, at least the eastern two-thirds of the state.  During his tenure thus far, Pearl has only signed two players from Tennessee…Wayne Chism and Philip Jurick.

It’s hard to justify how you let Oglesby and Stewart get away.  And the Vols appear to be ignoring rising Knox Fulton senior Jalen Steele this year.

When the recruiting improves, the Vols will improve.  And it needs to improve.

Melvin Goins

Less than two weeks since being eliminated from the 2009 NCAA Tournament, the Vols wasted no time attempting to bolster next season’s roster with the commitment from a  junior college point guard.

This marks the second year in a row that Tennessee has signed a juco point guard, which raises more questions than answers.

With the commitment of 5-10, 190-pound Melvin Goins from San Jacinto, Calif., Bruce Pearl is signalling several things about next season.

Anytime you get into the habit of signing juco players, much less players of the same position in back-to-back years, you’re admitting you have a problem, and so it appears Pearl is ready to admit he has one.

Clearly, Pearl and his staff were not satified with the production of the tandem of Bobby Maze and Josh Tabb at the point this season.

While the dissatisfaction may be warranted, it’s puzzling that Pearl would offer Goins, a player with fewer credentials than Maze.

Goins is rated a one-star point guard.  He signed out of high school and played one season at Ball State, a mid-major.  Maze at least, came out of junior college by way of Oklahoma.

To make matters more interesting, a roster spot will have to be created in order for Goins to sign.  In other words, someone you otherwise assume would be back will have to leave the program early.

My bet is that person is Daniel West, the point guard from Saginaw, Mich., who was set to play this year before encountering some issues with his academic record.  West has since attended Tennessee on his own dime this year with the expectation that he would rejoin the team next year.

It would appear all bets are off on that one.  I find it hard to believe that Pearl would devote another scholarship to the point guard position, especially to someone with the credentials, or lack thereof, of Goins. 

It’s unclear, however,  whether Goins will have one or two years of eligibility at Tennessee.  The fact that he played one season at Ball State and two in juco leads me to believe he’s one and done at Tennessee, which makes more sense since the Vols have a commitment from five-star point guard Josh Selby for the class of 2010.

The other most likely roster departures would be Wayne Chism, Tyler Smith or Scotty Hopson.  If it’s not West, my next bet would be Chism.  We’ll see.

But clearly Pearl is in reaction mode.  This is a stop-gap measure that quite frankly I don’t believe will cure what ails Tennessee in 2009-10. The program will have to rise above stop gap measures  to get to the next level or back to the previous one.

(This is the first of a three-part series on the current state of Tennessee’s men’s basketball program.  Part One is today.  Part 2 will come out Friday,  April 3.  Please note that since this article was written, Tennessee has received a new commitment from a junior college point guard for next season.)

In his first three-plus seasons as head basketball coach at Tennessee, Bruce Pearl resisted the temptation of calling his program a top 25 program in men’s college basketball.

Prior to this season, Pearl could resist the temptation no longer, proclaiming for the first time that he finally felt comfortable in saying that the program had reached Top 25 status and that it could remain so for years to come.

Clearly, the Vols were not a Top 25 program this season.  They slipped out of the Top 25 rankings for most of the season and managed only a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  If you do the math, according to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee this year at least, Tennessee was somewhere between a top 33 and top 36 program this season.

Why the slippage this season, you ask?  Did Pearl all of a sudden become a bad coach in just one season.  The answer to this question is “no.”

But what did happen this season has been three years in the making.  What commonly ails many programs currently ails Tennessee.  And I’m talking about recruiting. 

In short, Pearl must recruit better to make the Vols a perennial Top 25 basketball program.

Pearl and his staff have underperformed on two fronts in recruiting, the first of which I will cover today.

Under close examination, many of Pearl’s signees during his first four years have not panned out. They have not or did not contribute significantly to the program. Several, in fact, left the program early and never completed their eligibility.

Below is a list of Pearl’s signees since he arrived at Tennessee and a brief statement about their overall contribution to the basketball program.  Note that the list only includes signees, not transfers.

2005

Ryan Childress, Cincinnati, OH – Was most productive in his first two seasons in a reserve role.  Injury hampered most of his junior season and missed virtually all of senior season with injury.  Minor contributor.

2006

Wayne Chism, Bolivar, TN – Second-leading scorer and team’s leading rebounder in junior season.  Part-time starter first two seasons. Major contributor.

Marques Johnson, Fort Wayne, IN – Played in four games in freshman season before transferring.  No contributor.

Josh Tabb, Carbondale, IL – Just-completed junior season was most productive, yet only averaged 3.4 points per game.  Minor contributor.

Ramar Smith, Detroit, MI – Signficant contributor and part-time starter in two seasons.  Left program after sophomore season. Minor contributor. 

Duke Crews, Hampton, VA – Part-time starter for two seasons.  Medical and off-court issues.  Left program after sophomore season. Minor contributor.

2007

Brian Williams – Averaged five points and 5.6 rebounds as a sophomore in a reserve role.  Minor contributor.

Cameron Tatum – Redshirt freshman averaged 7.6 ppg in a reserve role. Minor contributor. 

2008

Renaldo Woolridge, North Hollywood, CA – Played sparingly this season as a true freshman.  Minor contributor.

Daniel West, Saginaw, MI – Was ruled academically ineligible prior to freshman season. Expected to rejoin team for 2009-10 season. No contributor.

Bobby Maze, Hutchinson, KS – Juco transfer averaged 8.2 ppg and started most of the season at the point.  Major contributor.

Emmanuel Negedu – Brewster, N.H. -  Saw limited playing time as a freshman in a reserve role.  Minor contributor.

Scotty Hopson, Hopkinsville, KY – Most heralded incoming freshman of the Pearl era.  Up-and-down season, but more up in the second half of the season.  Major contributor.

Philip Jurick, Chattanooga, TN – Redshirted as a freshman. No contributor.

To summarize, Pearl’s first four recruiting classes at Tennessee resulted in 14 signees, three of whom have made a major contribution to the program. That’s a 21% success rate.  Not very good.

Yes, you can argue that Tyler Smith and J.P. Prince came into the program under Pearl’s watch, but they were transfers, not players you invest nearly as much time and energy recruiting as a coaching staff as you do high school or junior college players.  And most coaches don’t rely on transfers to build their programs.

When you look at Pearl’s recruiting objectively, you have to wonder how he  has been as successful as he has.

I’m not one of these people who discounts Pearl’s success during his first three seasons at Tennessee because he won with Buzz Peterson’s players. On the contrary, I give Pearl immense credit for that.  Buzz couldn’t win with them, but Pearl could and did.

But when you look at Tennessee’s shortcomings this season, you can quickly trace it back to Pearl and his staff’s lack of success on on the recruiting front as a big reason for the slippage this season.

The Vols were not a Top 25 program this season primarily because the Vols’ recruiting has suffered mightily in four seasons under Pearl.

If Tennessee is to re-emerge as a Top 25 program and a perennial contender for the Southeastern Conference championship, Pearl must recruit better.

Fortunately, indications are that is beginning to happen, but we’re probably another season away from seeing it.

In the class of 2009, the Vols are currently bringing in only one player, but he’s reputed to be a good one.  Kenny Hall is a 6-9, 215-pound power forward from Stone Mountain, Ga.   Hall is ranked as the No. 9 power forward in the country and had other offers from Clemson, Georgia and Wake Forest.

For the class of 2010, Pearl and the Vols already have three commitments, albeit verbal.

Leading the list is Josh Selby, a five-star player rated the No. 2 point guard in the country from famed Dematha High in Maryland.  The Vols also have two other commitments including Jordan McRae, rated the No. 11 shooting guard in the country from Hinesville, Ga, and Aaron Craft, a three-star point guard from Ohio.

Selby and McRae, along with Hall coming in next year, are the types of players Pearl must recruit and retain consistently to elevate the Vols back to Top 25 program status.

The Vols can get there, but Pearl must recruit better in order for them to do it.