Is it too early to vote Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl this state’s sportsman of the year?

Sure, it’s still July. We haven’t even begun the 2008 football season. And if we’re going backward, any such competition must include the Memphis hoop Tigers for reaching the NCAA championship game.

But Pearl doesn’t even need to include last spring’s SEC regular-season championship, his Volunteers’ brief time at No. 1 after their regular-season win over then-undefeated Memphis or their second straight run to the Sweet 16.

To fully appreciate Pearl’s impact on basketball in this state, you need only revisit the coming season’s schedule, which was announced this past weekend.

Including a Nov. 7 exhibition game against Tusculum, Pearl has scheduled in-state opponents for his first four games, including the regular-season opener against visiting UT-Chattanooga.

A home game against UT-Martin follows the expected mashing of the Mocs. A road trip to Middle Tennessee arrives just before the Thanksgiving weekend visit to Orlando for the Old Spice Classic.

Then there’s that Dec. 20 game against Belmont and the Jan. 24 rematch with Memphis in Thompson-Boling Arena. Throw the exhibition game in with the two Southeastern Conference games against Vanderbilt and the Big Orange will face seven in-state opponents for a total of eight games.

And that doesn’t even include the rest of the nonconference schedule, which features a Jan. 3 game at fabled Allen Fieldhouse against national champion Kansas, a road trip to Temple, a SEC-Big East Challenge game against Marquette in Nashville and potential Old Spice games against Georgetown, Oklahoma State and Michigan State.

With a schedule like that and the usual grind of the SEC, Pearl would seem to be walking that very fine line between boldness and stupidity.

But at least going to Kansas assures his program of national exposure. Visiting Middle Tennessee or hosting the Mocs or Belmont risks ridicule.

After all, it was only four years ago that UTC waltzed into the Boling Alley and left with a victory.

Said then-UT coach Buzz Peterson later that day, “This one may come back to bite me.”

Four months later, he was unemployed.

“It’s one thing for Bruce to play us in Knoxville,” said UTC coach John Shulman, who defeated Peterson that Sunday afternoon in December. “But for him to go on the road to Middle, or to play us last year at our place is very commendable. He doesn’t have to do that.”

Pearl doesn’t have to do a lot of things he does. He didn’t have to show up at a Lady Vols game in body paint and lead cheers with his players. He doesn’t have to dominate TV Land during the NCAA tourney once his team is eliminated. He doesn’t have to stand on the sidelines in a T-shirt and shorts during UT football games, cheering himself hoarse as he roots on the Vols.

But the more he does it, the more basketball in this state succeeds at all levels.

“He certainly doesn’t have job-security issues,” Shulman said. “He has turned Tennessee into a national name and is close to having them in the national power category. They could be scary good this year.”

Still, it’s what UT does for its in-state brothers each time the Big Orange play one of them that Shulman most cherishes.

“It’s crazy what Pearl coming to our place did for us last year,” the Mocs’ coach said of the Vols’ six-point December win. “They’re selling pictures of what the arena looked like when Tennessee was there. We’ve got people who fell in love with our program that night simply because UT being there made it a big deal and they wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”

When he announced the schedule last week, Pearl said, “This is designed to send a message to our players that we have confidence in them to play against the best in the country.”

It also sent a message that Pearl seems committed to doing what’s best to promote basketball in the rest of the Volunteer State.

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