Bruce Pearl, former head coach of the Auburn Tigers, yells at the referees during the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Neville Arena on February 21, 2026, in Auburn, Alabama.
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Head coach Jimmy Collins of the UIC Flames during the Flames’ 78-53 loss to the Kansas Jayhawks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.
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Illinois basketball radio broadcaster and all-time leading scorer Deon Thomas, also a former Lewis & Clark men’s basketball head coach, appeared as a guest Friday on the “Spiegel & Holmes Show” on WSCR-AM 670. The topic of TBS broadcaster Bruce Pearl came up.
Pearl’s actions as an Iowa Hawkeyes assistant coach led to Thomas being forced to sit out his freshman year during 1989-90 at Illinois and tainted the Illinois basketball program, former head coach Lou Henson, and former assistant coach Jimmy Collins with a reputation for cheating, though no evidence of impropriety ever surfaced.
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Thomas, a member of the Illinois program from 1989-94, said Friday that Pearl’s actions were “very hurtful.”
“When you are going through what I went through as a 17-year-old, having someone tell mistruths about you, even though you know what your character is and who you are, it was very hurtful in certain ways to have my character questioned in that way,” Thomas said. “But to be quite honest, I knew I did not do anything wrong. I knew Jimmy Collins did not do anything wrong. So what seriously affected me and really hurt me was the fact that I did not get to play with Kendall Gill, Steve Bardo, and the rest of those guys from that ’89 (Final Four) team. I think if we play, we’re right back in the Final Four. So that was one thing that was crushing to me.”
Radio announcer and former Illinois player Deon Thomas broadcasts before an NCAA college basketball game against Rutgers on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, in Champaign, Illinois.
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Collins was the lead recruiter for Illinois in its pursuit of Thomas, and Pearl alleged to the NCAA that Thomas was given a Chevy Blazer and $80,000. Collins, who died in 2020, played for Henson at New Mexico State, then was an assistant coach at Illinois from 1983-96.
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“The next thing was the effect that it had on Jimmy Collins’ career, who was somebody that was really, really close to me — like a father figure to me, that was very important in my life as a teacher, as a mentor,” Thomas said. “I believe he would have been the next coach at the University of Illinois, succeeding coach Henson. … To have him affected by that, to have the team affected by that, and to be quite honest, to have coach Henson’s legacy affected by a lie was truly hurtful to me and to that program.”
Thomas said Friday that he understands Illinois fans who find Pearl’s actions unforgivable, but Thomas said he has moved on himself.
“That’s one of those things that you can never really forgive,” Thomas said. “If you ask anyone from Illini nation, especially that are anywhere around my age, that’s the very first thing that they walk up to me, and they say, ‘Man, I hate Bruce Pearl.’ And I tell them, ‘I understand. I get it. I completely understand.’ But one of the things my granny always said to me, ‘Deon, you forgive people. You don’t forgive them for them. But you forgive them for you, so they no longer have control of your life.’ So until somebody brings that guy up to me, I swear to God, he does not even cross my mind.”
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Illinois-Chicago’s head coach Jimmy Collins watches the game from the bench in the second half of a college basketball game against Wisconsin on Dec. 27, 2009, in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Bruce Pearl is prominently featured on the TBS broadcast of the NCAA Tournament this year after retiring this fall and turning over the Auburn basketball program to his son, Steven Pearl.
“The number of text messages and emails that I have received about Bruce — I have not received this in 15, 20, 25 years,” Thomas said. “He has definitely been the hot topic. I learned a long time ago that when he comes up — in some shape, form, or fashion — there will be something that comes up about me. But let’s just be quite honest, he keeps putting himself in that situation. I mean him going out there and trying to advocate for his son to get into the NCAA Tournament, while there were other teams that were better. You’re up there to be an analyst. You’re not up there to be a cheerleader for your former program that you left right before (the season so) they could have any ability to choose a different coach, so they had to take your son. And now you want to be an advocate for that. That’s not what you’re there for. You’re there to be an analyst, to talk openly and honestly about everyone.”
Thomas said that Bruce Pearl apologized to him at the 2011 Final Four in New Orleans for making false accusations against the Illinois basketball program, citing being an “overzealous recruiter.”
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“Bruce came out of, I think, Emeril Lagasse’s restaurant,” Thomas said. “He came running out calling me down the street. … Fast forward, we’re inside. He’s like, ‘Deon, I just want to apologize to you. I was an overzealous recruiter at that time, and I’m sorry. But I never said anything negative about you.’ I said, ‘Well, I appreciate you not saying anything negative about me, but what you said still affected me. And it took you 20-plus years to come back and apologize to me, so if it’s good for you that this apology is accepted. OK, but for me, it doesn’t matter. It’s 20-plus years too late. So have a good day.’ And we turned, and we walked down the street, and we left. I don’t know what that did for him, but it did absolutely nothing for me, because it was already over in my eyes.”
Illinois men’s basketball coach Lou Henson gives directions to his team Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1995, during practice after the team’s media day in Champaign, Illinois.
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Thomas, the Lewis and Clark Community College head men’s basketball coach and athletics director from 2009-14, said he is in his 10th year as Illinois men’s basketball radio broadcaster and really enjoying it.
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“I love it; I love being around this team,” Thomas said. “I love doing what I do now on the radio. … I’ve been working in the (University of Illinois) athletic department as a director of major gifts in Chicago. So I’m around athletics. I’m around the basketball team. Bro, I got the two best jobs in the world. They are not work. They’re just jobs, and I do them because I love Illini nation. That university changed my life. I’m so proud every day of things I’m doing right now.”
Illinois coach Lou Henson talks to Deon Thomas (25) on the bench during the game vs. Vanderbilt at Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 20, 1993.
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