You can't say Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl flies under the radar. Since taking over the Volunteers five years ago, the guy's done more radio and television interviews than President Obama.
He's a media magnet, his schmoozing and smarts always on display. Throw in the electric tangerine wardrobe and every college basketball junkie knows the boss of the Big Orange.
That said, Pearl hasn't quite been on the A-list of coaches most wanted to turn around sagging programs. He's been mentioned a couple of times, especially on the two occasions Iowa has come open, given his longtime turn as an assistant with the Hawkeyes, but he hasn't yet garnered the interest often afforded a Tubby Smith, Thad Matta or Rick Pitino.
Then again, he'd never advanced past the NCAA tournament's Sweet Sixteen before last weekend. Now that he has, expect Pearl to be mentioned more than once these next couple of weeks for various positions, beginning with alma mater: Boston College.
BC athletic director Gene DeFillippo did the expected Tuesday and parted company with Al Skinner, a fine coach handicapped by an unexciting personality and playing style.
Or as DeFillippo said when discussing his reasons for parting ways with Skinner, "People weren't willing to go the arena."
And BC's arena isn't a 20,000-seat palace. It holds a little more than 8,000.
With that in mind, you can't say Boston College is a better job than Tennessee, especially after Pearl's taken the Vols to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament three times in his first five seasons.
With the fourth highest home attendance in college hoops this past season, with a top-five recruiting class coming in, with son Steven set to play his senior year for "Pops," with his new wife being an East Tennessee native, Pearl has almost no reason to look elsewhere. Even his alma mater. Maybe especially his alma mater.
Nor did UT athletic director Mike Hamilton seem terribly concerned Tuesday, when he told our paper that BC had not contacted him, nor did he expect Pearl to leave, saying, "I think both he and I think we've got something pretty special going on here right now."
But that doesn't mean Pearl won't listen. Or that he might not squeeze a few more dollars out of Hamilton, whose own reputation has been enhanced -- if not downright saved in the wake of Lane Kiffin -- by Pearl's success.
That's the way the game is played now. You have a big year. You agree to a couple of interviews, whether you're really interested or not. Then you hold up your current employer for a respectable raise or bonus. Happens every year about this time.
And Tennessee positively, absolutely has to keep Pearl. The Vols were never much of anything on the national landscape before he arrived, and they could return quickly to that mediocrity should he depart. Tennessee football always will have much to commend it to top-flight coaches. It took UT men's basketball more than 100 years to reach the Elite Eight.
But the college game may not be Hamilton's biggest concern. By winning as he did this past season with stifling half-court defense and an impressive post game on offense, Pearl is said to have gotten the attention of several pro franchises, who previously saw him as a gimmick coach, too wedded to the full-court press and 3-point shot.
Pearl seems to be too much of a character to be drawn to the NBA, where the players always will be the focus of the show. But Pearl also got to this stage later in his career than most. NBA money arrives more quickly and in bigger bunches than college pay, even if Pearl reportedly will make as much as $2.5 million this season after bonuses.
There also is the allure of proving you can match wits with the best of them. Pearl rarely has been appreciated by the masses for his brilliance in the final two minutes of games, though few on the collegiate level can match him for inbounds creativity or one-possession precision.
The NBA, however, is all about the single possession. It's a player's game for 46 minutes every night, then a coach's game in those final 120 seconds. A pro basketball owner could do far worse than hand the clipboard to Pearl for those two minutes a game that the plan is at least as important as the player.
Still, it is the college game where Pearl has made his mark to date and the college game that has made him a household name.
Which is why it is worth repeating what DeFillippo said he was looking for in the man who will replace Skinner.
"We want a coach who is going to play an exciting brand of basketball," he said. "We want a team that's going to dive for loose balls, that's going to take charges, that's going to play great defense, and a team that's going to give us everything they have to give while out there on the floor. We want a team and a coach who will relate to our student body, to our faculty, to our staff, to our alumni and fans."
Sound like anyone you've seen wearing a bright orange sport coat the last five years?