More Facts on the Bruce Pearl Case

There is an interrogation technique that police and security personnel are taught. First, they are taught to ask open-ended questions, rather than questions to which one can answer "yes or no." Second, they are taught to ask confrontational questions, like, "Yes?" barked out.

Nine out of ten people can't stay quiet, but will immediately start babbling, telling the interrogator everything they want to know without the interrogator asking for specifics.

Third, although this is actually a maxim for interviewers rather than interrogators, but the NCAA seems to follow it - ask questions to which you already know the answer. If your interviewee lies, you catch him dead to rights then and there.

That is why, if someone "in authority" asks you a question the best thing to do is to tell the truth right away, because if you lie, you will always be found out. [Although of course the very, very best thing is not to do something regarding which you would then need to lie about in the first place!]

So, with that preface, here's an excerpt from sports columnist Greg Doyel's article for today:

The whole thing started when Pearl broke a relatively minor NCAA rule on recruiting in 2008. That was the year, according to CBSSports.com college basketball expert Gary Parrish, that Pearl entertained several recruits -- high school juniors -- at his house. Problem is, high school juniors aren't allowed in a college coach's house. High school seniors? Sure. But a high school junior? No way.

Pearl knew that rule -- it's one of the more basic rules in the NCAA's enormous rulebook -- and he broke it anyway. That's bad, but it's forgivable.

When the NCAA caught wind of the violation and asked Pearl about it, he lied. He was shown a photograph of the recruits standing in his house, and he was asked, "Where was this picture taken?" Pearl looked at that picture, and he lied. He told the NCAA he didn't know where that picture had been taken.

That's bad, and it's unforgivable. You don't lie to the NCAA, ever, but you damn sure don't lie to the NCAA when you've cheated and are trying to get away with it. Well, you don't lie in those circumstances and then realistically ask for forgiveness, as Pearl did last week.

When he admitted his transgression at a news conference, Pearl basically said he had come clean to the NCAA because he knew lying was a mistake.

When the truth is, Pearl came clean because he knew he had been busted.

According to a source close to the situation -- really close; I mean, really, really close -- Pearl discovered almost immediately that his lie hadn't fooled anyone. The NCAA had already talked to other witnesses before talking to Pearl. That question the NCAA asked, wondering where the picture had been taken? The NCAA knew the answer before it asked Pearl the question. That's what Pearl discovered. He realized he had told the wrong lie to the wrong people.

Rather than wait for the NCAA to drop the hammer on him for lying, Pearl came clean. But not because of his conscience, as he told everybody last week. No. He came clean because he had no other choice.

This isn't semantics -- this is everything. Not to be all naïve about sports, but a college coach stands for more than wins and losses, which Pearl has done at a 126-46 level in five seasons at Tennessee. There is also leadership and mentorship. There is accountability.

And Bruce Pearl has shown none of it. At best he is a liar. At worst he is a pathological liar. Either way, he has to be fired.