Two head basketball coaches. Same weekend. Two very divergent paths. And one commonality.

Bruce Pearl of Tennessee is basking in the afterglow of his team's win over Memphis, a win that will likely propel the Volunteers into the number one ranking in tomorrow's new college polls.

Kelvin Sampson, though $750,000 richer, is now out of a job at Indiana. And I guess it would be superfluous to say he'll be working the phones in an effort to find a new job.

What then, do these two coaches have as their common thread?

Mention either one of their names to an Illinois basketball fan, and then duck in anticipation of their reaction.

The wound Sampson dealt the Illini faithful is much more fresh. Eric Gordon is having a dazzling freshman season for Indiana, while the Illini have been struggling (use Saturday's loss to Michigan as a case in point), er, straggling, with a 3-12 record in the Big 10. Gordon's reneging of an oral commitment to Bruce Weber in order to sign with Sampson and the Hoosiers still rankles anyone who bleeds orange and blue. And when the story came out that Sampson had committed phone violations after being penalized by the NCAA for the same kinds of no-no's, it had to cross the mind of every one of those Illini backers, "How many of those 'impermissable' calls came while getting Gordon to change his mind?"

Pearl has successfully navigated a rocky road to Rocky Top. From head coaching jobs at Division II Southern Indiana to Wisconsin-Milwaukee he plugged along until taking the job at Tennessee. Now in his third season at Knoxville, he and the Vols have climbed to a summit-like status: Pat Summitt, that is.

But before his climb began, Pearl was the assistant coach at Iowa who tape-recorded phone conversations with recruit (and later Illini standout) Deon Thomas that led to the Illinois program being slammed with NCAA probation. Jimmy Collins, who got caught in the fallout of the Thomas scandal, never shook hands with Pearl in the five years both were coaching in the Horizon League. Thomas referred to Pearl as a "snake". Three years after his calls implicated the Illini program, Pearl left as an assistant at a Big 10 school for a job in Division II. And Pearl has risen through the ranks and now can wag a "number one" finger at the basketball world. I think Illini fans would like to wag a different finger at Pearl. Still.

Until next time.......... ¶ 12:23 PM