CHARLOTTE, N.C.-“We just didn’t play with any heart out there,” Tennessee freshman forward Tobias Harris said when asked to explain the Volunteers’ 75-45 NCAA tournament loss to Michigan on Friday afternoon. “We just quit.”
Happy 51st birthday, Bruce Pearl. Too bad it couldn’t be a gag gift. Instead, this was the last thing the UT coach needed if he expected to mount a grassroots campaign to hold tight to his job.
Fans understand being overmatched. Fans might even understand being fatigued or frustrated, especially after athletic director Mike Hamilton pretty much threw Pearl under the bus on Wednesday, saying, “We’ve done a lot of soul searching about the direction of our program.”
We’re still checking out rumors that Hamilton’s been known to pop the balloons at his kids’ birthday parties before they arrive or to steal the candy from his yard before an Easter egg hunt.
But regardless of what the Big Orange Nation thinks of Hammer-brain, it just doesn’t understand not playing with heart. It really doesn’t understand quitting. So Pearl’s now in a jam more than ever. He’s just lost a game by the widest margin of his six seasons in Knoxville. He’s just failed to win 20 games for the first time at UT.