The CheckerBoard

Jesus. Bruce Pearl is going to Nick Saban us in basketball and go to some other team. (Let's say Georgia.) That makes us LSU. Your girlfriend broke up with you and now goes out with your former best friend, and they frequent all your favorite bars and local spots.

Yea, there is a lot of talk here in Memphis that they also have their eye on him. The big issue is that if Pastner can't win a game or two in the tournament, they will definitely jump ship with him. They'd have to do the Show-Cause to get him there before August, but with the class they have, they could wait until August anyways.

I'd pull for Vandy if they hired Bruce, except when they play UT of course. I

Wait, how much basis does this topic actually have? I realize Vandy has had a bad year, but didn't they just lose a lot of key guys they had been relying on for the past few years? Just taking the 30,000 foot view, I can't fathom why people would be that serious about Stallings being out because of this one season. I realize Vandy fans have been frustrated with his inability to make deep runs in the tournament, but I thought he'd done a decent job as their head coach (2009 Season: 24-9, 2010 Season: 23-11, 2011 Season: 25-11 and in each of those seasons he got deeper into the tournament). To me, and I don't claim to follow Vandy at all until we play them, it doesn't make sense to fire him unless you've been looking for a reason to get rid of him before this season, and maybe they have.

And then regarding the Memphis job, that makes less sense to me. I live in Memphis, so I'm surrounded by the Tiger lovers (even my girlfriend is a huge Memphis basketball fan...it's annoying). And even though I think Pastner is not a very good coach, a lot of people in this town love him, if for nothing more than his personality. On top of that, he is sporting a 24-4 record (and yes, I know they haven't won a big game all season nor have they beaten any worthwhile opponents), and I think the AD would be clairvoyant enough to understand that Josh won all the games he was supposed to (with the exception of Xavier and maybe VCU) considering the fact that they play in C-USA. But again, I don't see how much truth there is to the Memphis job being vacant at the end of the season.

Ultimately, I wish the best for Bruce because he was my coach while I went to school at UT, but I would hate having to cheer against him, let alone play against a team he would put on the court.