By MIKE STRANGE, strange2@knews.com Great things were not expected of Don DeVoe's first Tennessee basketball team in 1978-79. Much like Bruce Pearl's first team 27 years later. Both turned out to have a few surprises up their sleeves. "It's never easy when you have a new coach,'' DeVoe said Wednesday, addressing the Big Orange Tipoff Club. "There are a lot of parallels between my first year and coach Pearl's first year.'' To which Pearl piped up, "The one parallel I'd like is if I can beat Kentucky three times.'' Which DeVoe did en route to guiding the Vols to their first-ever NCAA tournament victory that season. Besides Pearl, a number of DeVoe's old players and Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt showed up to pay tribute to a speaker who, despite moving among several colleges in his 35 years, said he is always referred to as the Tennessee coach. "My years here were really fun years,'' said DeVoe, whose 341 wins from 1978-89 rank second only to Ray Mears on the men's side of the ledger. "He taught me more defense than anyone in the coaching profession,'' said Summitt, who is looking for win No. 902. DeVoe was known for his disciplined approach to basketball, with great attention to defense. He couldn't resist a friendly dig at Pearl, whose Vols lead the SEC in scoring at 83 points a game. "The day I (visited practice) you weren't spending as much time on your defense as I thought you should,'' DeVoe said. "I was tickled as hell to win a basketball game 48-46.'' DeVoe acknowledged his greatest success came before the advent of the shot clock: "I would love to have a five-point lead on Vanderbilt with five minutes to go and have (guard) Bert Bertelkamp go out there to the middle of the court and put it under his arm.'' After retiring from coaching at Navy in 2004, DeVoe moved back to Knoxville last year. His youngest two children are enrolled at UT. He said the excitement Pearl has generated complements Summitt's historic success to make this a special time in UT basketball history. He also encouraged Vol fans to flock to the men's SEC tournament in
Nashville, saying, "It could be our tournament.'' |