"There's good news in Bruce Pearl's retirement as head basketball coach at Auburn, which is that he says he will not run for public office. The bad news is that Bruce Pearl says a lot of things, and does not have a history of trustworthiness. The good news is he didn't have to make that pledge because he has always been unapologetically brazen about what he wants and how he wants it."
"Pearl's history as a happy-go-lucky ne'er-do-well is well documented, going back to the time when Pearl, who was then an assistant at Iowa under Tom Davis, secretly recorded a phone call with mega-recruit Deon Thomas. In that call, Pearl asked Thomas if he had been bribed to go to Illinois instead of Iowa; when Thomas inferred that he had, Pearl turned the recording over to the NCAA. Thomas had a fine career at Illinois; Pearl's random act of snitching nearly torpedoed his career, but didn't."
Bruce Pearl retired as head basketball coach at Auburn and pledged he will not run for public office. He retired a month before the next season and named his son Steven as his successor after a search process that played out across a family dinner. Pearl has a pattern of brazen, unapologetic behavior and a spotty record of trustworthiness despite on-court success, including two Final Four appearances. Past controversies include secretly recording a phone call with recruit Deon Thomas and handing the tape to the NCAA, an action that nearly derailed Thomas's career. College athletics operates as a compromised meritocracy that rewarded Pearl's wins.
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