|
For those who don't know about the Illinois/Bruce Pearl feud... here you go.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Still making news, former Illinois star Deon Thomas scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds last Thursday night in an Israeli professional basketball league game to help Maccabi Tel Aviv advance in the Premier Division playoffs.
Thomas, now 34 and an Israeli citizen, hit all six of his shots in 23 minutes off the bench.
Thomas' present basketball career now may warrant a headline abroad, but expect part of his past to be dissected daily in his hometown until Thursday's tipoff at the AllState Arena pitting the Illini against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the NCAA tournament Chicago regional semifinal.
The juicy story line has shifted from Illinois' burden of being the No. 1 team in the country to the grudge matchup between Wisconsin-Milwaukee coach Bruce Pearl and the program he blew the whistle on 15 years ago after a secretly taped conversation with Thomas.
It was Thomas who allegedly told Pearl, then an Iowa assistant coach, then-Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins had offered the former Simeon star $80,000 and a Chevrolet Blazer to sign with the Illini. Pearl turned over the tape of that conversation to the NCAA as part of its probe into wrongdoing in former coach Lou Henson's program.
Thomas and Collins adamantly denied the allegations after the NCAA slapped Illinois with a two-year probation in 1990 that included scholarship and recruiting restrictions and a ban from the 1991 NCAA tournament. The NCAA report never specifically mentioned Pearl's allegation, and many around the Big Ten believed other head coaches, such as Bob Knight, had shared information that played a bigger role in the NCAA's decision.
Thomas later filed a civil lawsuit against Pearl, claiming he violated state and federal eavesdropping laws, but the case eventually was dismissed. At the time, Dick Vitale blasted Pearl on national television for committing "career suicide," and many members of the coaching fraternity shunned him for breaking an unwritten code.
Collins, now the coach at Illinois-Chicago, holds a grudge to the extent he still refuses to shake hands with Pearl after Horizon League games.
Thursday will mark the first time Pearl has coached against Illinois in 13 seasons as a head coach. But it is fair to say that in Champaign fans have neither forgiven nor forgotten and their memories of Pearl's act are as fresh as the image of Dee Brown on Sports Illustrated's cover.
Asked after Illinois' victory over Nevada what he would say to Illini fans still angry at Pearl, coach Bruce Weber tried to keep the focus on the challenge of beating a 12th-seeded team playing well enough to surprise Alabama and Boston College.
"[I'd tell them] we have to be ready to play and hope we get a win because they're not going to be happy if we don't," Weber said. "It's old history, and we can't worry about that."
Weber, a Wisconsin-Milwaukee alum who did not play basketball at the school, complimented the job Pearl has done at his alma mater and tried changing a subject that is not likely to change for days. Not if Pearl follows through with his stated intention of using the Sweet 16 stage to set the record straight about the Illinois controversy.
"I think it's a great opportunity to put it behind me again," Pearl told reporters Saturday night in Cleveland after beating Boston College. "I stand by what happened and what I did. I hope it won't take the focus off our kids. It will be a pain. It happened in 1989. There have been several coaches [at Illinois] since 1989. I don't think it will be that big a deal. It shouldn't be."
Illinois forward James Augustine, Saturday's hero, agreed. He pointed out that he and most of his teammates were 5 years old when the saga began to unfold and only know about Pearl from what they have heard from longtime Illini observers with good memories.
"We've talked about it a couple times, but I'm not concerned with any of that," Augustine said. "It'll be a big thing with the fans but has nothing to do with us. We have enough to worry about."
|
