I've read a couple of articles that mentioned him. But everyone gets mentioned for every job now. Groce has a great class coming next year and I think if the Illini can win one or two in the tourney, he's safe. For a year. Just like Two Tone Tommy.
I used to live in Knoxville and am friends with a ton of UT alums and alums from other SEC schools. Sometimes Purdue fans (and fans of other B1G schools) have this self-righteous attitude when it comes to any SEC fanbase. These stereotypes of SEC fans willing to overlook any crime in the name of winning is just flat wrong. Most of my UT friends agreed that Pearl should be let go and blamed it directly on him. Martin was never really embraced because the program took a step back under him. Some people from afar blamed the fact that he was never embraced on racism, others blamed it on a redneck fan base mentality (like Boilergal), but the bottom line is that the program generally regressed under Martin.
what!? he got better every year! this is why people laugh at the vols...
Did you even read my post? I never said half that stuff you claim. I never said anything about the players not loving Zo or claiming Bruce Pearl didn't cheat. Of course the players loved Zo - who wouldn't. Of course Pearl cheated - he is dirty. I'm not a Pearl supporter and I always want Zo to do well, wherever he is at. I'm a Purdue fan not a UT fan - I don't really care how they handle their program. My point is that there is a perception that most UT fans hated Zo from the very beginning and were not willing to give him a chance. From my experience actually living in Knoxville, having many UT alum friends, attending games at UT during the Zo era, speaking to long-time basketball ticket holders at games,etc., most UT fans initially thought that Zo was a fairly good hire and were rooting for him to succeed. Of course there were some unreasonable idiots that were against anyone not named Bruce Pearl - these are the type of people you referenced on the internet forum you observe. But from my real life experience actually talking to many people about this face to face, those folks were not in the majority. And based on that experience, I always disagree with the perception that most UT fans were against Zo from the beginning. Now by the end of his tenure, I would say about 30-percent of the fan base wanted him gone - those folks just happened to be very vocal about it. Kind of like the folks on this board who want CMP fired after every loss. Now my exposure to the UT fan base consisted mostly of alums. UT is kind of like IU where they have a huge following of in-state folks who didn't actually attend UT - maybe some of those folks actually did hate Zo from the beginning. But the folks I knew were mostly all pulling for Zo and the program to succeed.
