Tennessee basketball: Ranking all four Vols coaches by performance in 2010s decade

He’s one of the four or five greatest coaches in Tennessee basketball history, maybe even No. 1 in some people’s eyes. But most of Bruce Pearl’s success on Rocky Top came in the 2000s, including two Sweet Sixteen appearances, four NCAA Tournament appearances in four years, a No. 1 ranking and an outright regular season SEC title.

Anyway, Pearl got off to a red-hot start this decade. He led the Vols to an Elite Eight appearance in 2010. Then, a recruiting class led by Tobias Harris that also had Jordan McRae and Trae Golden got the Vols to a 7-0 start in 2010-2011. But as news of the lie about the barbecue broke, Pearl’s career began to unravel.

Those distractions resulted in numerous losing streaks in 2010-2011, and Pearl even got suspended for eight SEC games. It was unclear exactly what would happen to him, but all the outside noise turned what could have been a national championship team into an NCAA bubble team. Then, heading into the tournament that year, Mike Hamilton confirmed before it started that Pearl’s job was in question.

It was a ridiculous thing to do, and the result was disastrous, as UT got blown out by the Michigan Wolverines in the first round. Pearl was fired the following Monday. So in the 2010s alone, he had a 37-22 record and did coach the Vols to two straight NCAA Tournaments and an Elite Eight. But the mess he created and left after being fired drops him to No. 3 on this list, even if he’s the most successful UT coach in general of anybody on here.