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Illinois gets chance to settle score
INDIANAPOLIS - For 15 years now, he has been Illinois basketball's anti-Christ.
Ask any longtime fan with a sense of history to name the one person who makes the blood curdle, who makes hackles rise and whose very name causes harsh sneers and the mumbling of bad words, and it's the name of Bruce Pearl.
It's not Bobby Knight nor Mike Krzyzewski nor Billy Donovan. It's not even Bill Self, all coaches fans hold responsible for some level of evil perpetrated on the Illini Empire.
No, if you want to single out the one man held responsible for taking out the Illini basketball program with a blind-side block to the knees, it's the former University of Iowa coach Bruce Pearl, whose secretly tape-recorded conversations with Chicago Simeon High School recruit Deon Thomas set in motion an NCAA investigation that resulted in what Illini fans still consider to be the most unfair, unjust, unbelievable sanctions imaginable.
Fifteen years. If you think time heals all wounds, you're not familiar with the depth of the wound that will forever tie Pearl to the University of Illinois. The irony of it is that you'll be hearing Pearl's name on a daily basis this week because when Illinois takes the court Thursday in its Sweet 16 game of the NCAA tournament, it will be Pearl coaching the opposing team, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which advanced by upsetting Alabama and Boston College this week.
The bitter distaste for Pearl will be a hot topic among fans and those whose lives were affected by the investigation. Jimmy Collins, now the Illinois-Chicago head coach, was an assistant coach at Illinois when the accusations flew, and he'll be hoping Illinois wins by 100. Maybe 200 points.
Collins and Pearl coach in the same league, and to this day Collins refuses to shake Pearl's hand - before or after a game. The hatred runs that deep.
Ask Lou Henson about Bruce Pearl. The former Illini head coach had his program on the brink of dominance, coming off the 1989 Final Four appearance, about to lock up a TV deal with WGN, in on some stellar recruits.
Then came Pearl's accusations that Thomas committed to Illinois because the school agreed to give him illegal inducements of $80,000 in cash and a Chevrolet Blazer.
The accusations rocked college basketball and created a rift between Illinois and the University of Iowa that may never fully heal.
Ask Dick Nagy, the former Illini assistant who accompanied Collins to UIC and now works on the radio broadcasts of the Flames' games. Perhaps more than anyone, Nagy harbors a permanent grudge against Pearl. He'll be hoping for blood.
The thing is, though, Pearl simply can't be the story line when it comes to this current Illini team. Although most players have heard vague references to the incident, few - if any - know the details. Nor do they care to.
"I've heard a little about it," James Augustine said Saturday, minutes after playing the game of his life with 23 points, 10 rebounds and four steals in a 71-59 victory over Nevada. "I was 4 years old when that stuff started. I was watching cartoons."
Coach Bruce Weber, who has played against Pearl's UW-Milwaukee team when Weber was at Southern Illinois, knows fans won't simply let bygones be bygones.
"But that can't be a distraction," he said. "We have to focus on how they play, and they're good."
Like him or loathe him, Pearl has Wisconsin-Milwaukee playing outstanding basketball. His team is 26-5 and has won 19 of its last 20. They force nearly 18 turnovers a game, employing the same full-court press that Dr. Tom Davis used at Boston College (where Pearl attended) and at Iowa (where Pearl coached).
Stephen Bardo, the former Flyin' Illini team member, was on the television broadcast crew for Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Horizon League Tournament championship game.
"They play that same style that Iowa played when I was playing," Bardo said. "I remember we led Iowa 61-39 with 10 minutes to go at the Assembly Hall. Then they forced overtime and beat us.
"They put great pressure on you, and you can beat it for a while early and get some layups and think you've got it made. But they will force turnovers and they can go on runs and all of a sudden they're right there.
"The thing is, though, they thrive on making your guards look bad. And that's hard against Illinois. Plus Bruce Weber has coached against it and he knows how to handle it."
This will be an uncomfortable week for Pearl, who surely knows the Deon Thomas questions are coming. That's fine, because I've always thought of him as one of the game's great weasels, a sneaky, conniving guy who went to inexcusable extremes when he lost out on a high school recruit.
Fans and former coaches will have a field day dragging skeletons from the Pearl-Thomas closet this week.
But for the players, it needs to be about Xs and Os. They don't need to burden themselves with the sordid details from a nasty chapter in history.
There has always lingered a feeling that somewhere, sometime, the paths of Bruce Pearl and the University of Illinois would cross again. Thursday they will.
Mark Tupper can be reached at mtupper@;herald-review.com or 421-7983.
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