Do you remember the name of the Tennessee men's basketball coach who preceded Bruce Pearl?
Or the guy before that guy?
The answers are Buzz Peterson, best known as Michael Jordan's college roommate, and Jerry Green, a former high school coach from Gastonia.
Unless you have "Rocky Top" as your ringtone, there's probably no reason you should know that.
But Pearl's work turning Tennessee into a big-time basketball program is one of the best remodeling jobs since Bobby Jones converted a flower nursery into a golf course in Augusta, Ga., decades ago.
Sure, they've played good basketball in Knoxville for years, but it was usually women's coach Pat Summitt getting the credit.
Late this evening, probably around most working folks' bedtime, Pearl will send his Volunteers into an East Regional semifinal against Louisville, which is coached by Rick Pitino, who long ago received sainted status, at least on the college level.
It is a potentially dynamic matchup, a No. 2 seed (Tennessee) against a No. 3, both promising to run and press and play like there's no tomorrow. It will be about Tennessee's Chris Lofton and Louisville's David Padgett and a spot in Saturday's regional final.
But it will also be about Pearl and Pitino because, in college basketball it's always about the coaches. They're the stars, just like their college football counterparts, except the basketball guys don't require state troopers to escort them on and off the court.
They've both proven to be masters of their craft, though Pitino has done it with more success for more years. Critics will point out that Pitino didn't succeed in the NBA, but he has been exceptional as a college coach.
His .755 winning percentage in the NCAA tournament is third among active coaches (behind Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Florida's Billy Donovan, a Pitino protégé) and he's chasing his sixth Final Four in 22 seasons. Pitino, with his pressing defense and 3-point-oriented offense, has helped shape the modern college game.
New York has never left Pitino's voice and he appreciates -- and knows where to find -- a good bowl of pasta as much as anyone. That's a good thing.
You sense from afar that some of his sharp edges have been softened over the years, especially after his brother-in-law was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. He has coached at Kentucky and Louisville and succeeded in both ultra-demanding places.
Pitino is smooth, slick and nicely tailored.
Pearl, meanwhile, is a rustling bundle of energy, often sweating, usually talking.
He has not hidden the fact he's a Jewish guy from Boston coaching basketball at one of the bastions of SEC football. He took his shirt off and painted his chest orange last year to support Summitt and the women's program.
Pearl walks the campus and talks to students. He takes his team to a Nazi concentration camp in the Czech Republic during a summer overseas trip and tears up at the names he sees because some of them are family names. He wears a magnificently orange blazer for special games.
He's been called Bruce Almighty for what he's done at Tennessee, which tonight will play for its first spot in the Elite Eight.
This, it seems, is where Pitino and his teams live. For Pearl and the Vols, it's where they want to be.
Two men. Two programs. One goal.
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