Filed under: Connecticut, Tennessee, Big East, SEC, Coaches
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, granted a one-game reprieve in the midst of his Southeastern Conference suspension, was back on the bench Saturday for a non-conference game against Connecticut.The thought was Pearl's return would be a good thing for the Volunteers. But there were times during a 72-61 loss to No. 8 UConn that the body language from his players indicated they might have preferred Pearl had stayed at the hotel -- or never even boarded the airplane.
While the Huskies (16-2) played their most complete game of the season, the Vols (12-7) got off to a good start and finished very poorly. Tennessee was outscored by 10 in the second half and despite Pearl's stomping, pacing and pleading, top scorers Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris were held to 13 and 10 points. When Pearl yelled and told Hopson to "sit down" on the bench with nine minutes left in the game, Hopson had to be restrained by two of his teammates during a timeout. Earlier in the half, Pearl and guard Cameron Tatum had a heated exchange on the bench.
"We didn't play like a team tonight," said Harris, who was 4-for-10 from the field and 1-for-4 from three-point range. "Some nights we'll come out and play some of the best team basketball there is and other nights we won't. We've got to get our body language under control. That just comes, as a team, with us supporting each other out there."
The Volunteers, led by Melvin Goins' 15 points, no longer resemble the team that started 7-0, including victories over Villanova and Pittsburgh. And now, as Pearl begins serving the second-half of his eight-game SEC suspension, they are in serious jeopardy of missing the NCAA tournament.
Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2011/01/22/uconn-spoils-pearls-return-to-bench/
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