Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin watches a drill during practice for their NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal college basketball tournament game in Indianapolis.Tuesday should have been Cuonzo Martin’s day in the limelight. A brief flirtation – or was it a money grab disguised as hurt feelings? – with Marquette behind him, a new Tennessee contract apparently in the works, it should have been his moment finally to feel the love and the focus of the Big Orange Nation, if not much of the sports world.
Instead, Tiger Woods had to go and pull out of next week’s Masters due to an aching back. On April Fool’s Day, of all days. And when Tiger’s back means he won’t be back at Augusta National this spring, every other sports story kind of goes to the back burner.
But in focusing on why Martin’s return to the Big Orange for a fourth season seems to lack much joy and excitement, perhaps it’s just as instructive to draw a comparison between the Masters without Tiger and the reality that UT basketball is now without Bruce Pearl forevermore.
Both Pearl and Woods bring unmatched excitement to their craft. And brilliance. And memorable moment stacked upon memorable moment. How many of us in my profession have written in the past that Sunday afternoons at the Masters, the U.S. Open, heck, the John Deere/Red Bull/Ping/Greater Holy Toledo Classic are just a heck of a lot more fun and interesting with Tiger on the prowl?
And regardless of the fact that Pearl deserved to be fired three years ago for lying to the NCAA or that Bruce Au-mighty has now been the Auburn coach for 16 days, Big Orange basketball always felt more fun and interesting with him on the sideline.