Volunteer basketball coach Bruce Pearl ejected from son’s basketball game
Saturday, February 4th, 2006Tennessee Volunteer head coach Bruce Pearl was apparently ejected from his son’s high school basketball game Thursday night.
Pat Ryan, former UT and NY Jets’ quarterback was sitting next to Pearl during the game and had this to say:
His son was getting beat to death and they weren’t calling anything. Bruce told [official Shane Mynatt] he blew three calls in a row, I told him he blew three calls in a row and the guy behind me told him he blew three calls in a row.
Because he is Bruce Pearl, this guy eyeballed him and targeted him. [Pearl] didn’t curse him. The guy had missed a bunch of calls, and we were just giving him a little business, and the guy couldn’t handle it very well.
Pearl’s take on the incident:
I said it loud enough for him to hear that maybe he should change ends with the other official. And he looked at me, and he put the whistle in his mouth like I was coaching and he was going to give me a technical.
I said, “What, are you going to throw me out?” And he ran over to security. Before anything could happen, I just left the gym and went to the concession stand.
* * * *
I take my responsibility as being a role model seriously. I want our fans to behave, and I want them to be enthusiastic. I really didn’t do anything that rose to any level. I understand I can be a target.
What I realize now is I have to be perfect — I can’t say anything to any official. Is it fair? Maybe not. But that’s just the reality of it.
