Former University of Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl, left, addresses members of the media during a news conference at his home in Knoxville on Thursday.KNOXVILLE – Bruce Pearl has no plans of appealing the three-year show-cause letter he received from the NCAA on Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean the former University of Tennessee men’s basketball coach agrees with the length of the penalty.
By prohibiting Pearl from any recruiting, the show-cause effectively banishes Pearl from coaching an NCAA member institution for three years. Any school wanting to hire him would have to accept the restrictions on him or appear before the NCAA Committee on Infractions to contest them.
“These mistakes that were made were made by myself, and I take responsibility for them,” Pearl said at a news conference at his Knoxville home. “I’m fully accountable for them, and obviously we paid a very, very heavy price for the mistakes that we’ve made. I’m trying to do the very best I can to lead through this adversity to be an example of what happens when you aren’t forthcoming and you don’t tell the truth all the time and be acceptable of the consequences.
“That said, I am disappointed with the length of the show-cause. For 33 years I’ve been on college campuses trying to make a difference in young people’s lives. It’s really difficult for me to get my arms around the fact that for the next three years I won’t be.”
Pearl lied to NCAA investigators last June about the location of a picture with him and a high school junior at his house in September 2008 and failed to protect the integrity of the investigation by speaking with the recruit’s father.