NCAA Basketball

Former Coach Of College Basketball Players Will Now Coach Groceries

Fresh off of receiving a three-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA for recruiting violations, former Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl has decided to join a wholesale grocery distributor as their VP of marketing. If you’re wondering if this sounds like the beginning of a very good sports redemption arc, that’s because it does.

H.T. Hackney Co. said in a statement today that it has brought on Pearl because of his background in marketing and economics at Boston College.

Pearl had coaching options, in case you were wondering. He just didn’t have good coaching options.

He has stated that if the Dallas Mavericks D-League team offered him a job, he wouldn’t take it. His decision to stay local was also based largely on his family: Pearl has two kids currently in high school, two older kids who work around Knoxville, and his wife is from the area. Staying local was obviously a priority.

If we ever see Bruce Pearl coaching a big-time college basketball team again, it won’t be for another three years. The show-cause penalty effectively means that he can’t have contact with his recruits during its duration, and no team would hire a coach that can’t recruit. But when that show-cause penalty is up? Daddy’s hitting the tailor, the tanning salon, and then the paint store.