Monday, March 21, 2011

We want Bruce Pearl!

We want Bruce Pearl!
If you're a fan of Arkansas Razorback basketball, chant those four words.
"We want Bruce Pearl!"
Yeah, I know. The whacky coach is sort of disgraced after getting fired today by Tennessee. Pearl is a repeat violator of various NCAA rules. By coaching standards, he's a renegade. He's currently under some sort of suspension for violating a rule while serving a suspension for violating a previous rule.
Yeah, that's right.
But, he wins.
Everywhere he goes, Bruce Pearl wins. He builds programs. Don't ask how he does it. But, he does it and he's done it.
Pearl had a 231-99 record at Tennessee. In six years, the Volunteers went to six NCAA Tournaments. He had an 86-38 record at Milwaukee in the Horizon League and went 231-46 at some place in Indiana. Pearl has a winning record against every SEC school except Kentucky.
Arkansas fans want a winner. We need a winner. We crave a winner like Hugh Hefner craves Viagra.
Fact is, Arkansas wants a winner so bad, it doesn't matter what sort of baggage comes with it. Exhibit A: Bobby Petrino, who was lambasted for jumping off the Atlanta Falcons sinking ship in midseason.
Petrino was labed a rat by pretty much every talking head on ESPN. A few years later, that network is in Fayetteville televising the Razorbacks' spring football game.
You know why?
He's a winner.
So is Bruce Pearl. He's a proven program reviver. Sure, he's got more baggage than the Hilton sisters, but where ever he goes, he wins.
We Razorback fans want to win. We don't care how. We don't care why.
With Petrino and Pearl on the same staff, Fayetteville will become known like the old Oakland Raiders - Just Win Baby!
I like it. Besides, Pearl will be under such a huge microscope, he wouldn't dare cheat again. Would he?
As long as he wins, who cares.