Illini great Deon Thomas says former coach Bruce Pearl doesn’t belong on TV — and he’s right

For Illini fans of a certain age, the men’s basketball team’s delightful run to the Final Four has had a tinge of irritation.

During the TBS broadcasts of Illinois’ Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games last week, the studio panel included a villainous figure in Illini history. Some would say he was more reviled than the greatest villain of them all, “The General,” former Indiana coach Bobby Knight.

His last name rhymes with “hurl”: former Iowa assistant Bruce Pearl.

His mere presence on our screens — yes, I’m an Illinois grad, Class of ’96 — has drawn our ire. Seeing Pearl on the set with Illinois and Iowa logos pictured behind him was a jarring sight. But none of us was even the victim of Pearl’s deceitful, unconscionable behavior during a recruiting competition in 1989. Imagine being that person and seeing Pearl on the screen.

Imagine being Deon Thomas.

“You get a little triggered,” Thomas said.

Thomas, in his 10th year as Illinois’ lead radio analyst, was Pearl’s target. Pearl secretly recorded a conversation in which he asked Thomas if he had been offered $80,000 and a Chevy Blazer by Illinois assistant Jimmy Collins to sign with the school. Though he had received nothing, the Simeon star didn’t offer a denial, and Pearl sent the tape to the NCAA.

Though nothing came of the allegations, the NCAA found other infractions and banned Illinois from the 1991 postseason. Thomas couldn’t play as a freshman — though he went on to become the school’s all-time scoring leader — Collins’ reputation suffered and coaching great Lou Henson never duplicated the success of his ’89 Flyin’ Illini team, which made the Final Four.

So, yeah, “triggered.”

“But I really do my best not to think of that person,” Thomas said, “because if I allow him to occupy any space in my brain, it’s not gonna be positive for me.”

Pearl, who apologized to Thomas in 2011 — “As I told him, it’s about 25 years too late, but OK,” Thomas said — joined CBS Sports in October, shortly after stepping down as Auburn’s coach. He cited his desire to spend more time with family and to hand the reins to his associate head coach and son Steven. More on that later.

Despite the apology, Pearl never dropped his devious ways. In 2010, the SEC suspended Pearl, then Tennessee’s coach, for eight games for recruiting violations. The school fired him in 2011, but only because it couldn’t overlook his offenses anymore. In 2021, the NCAA put his Auburn program on four years’ probation and suspended him for two games for compliance failures.

“I am a person of second chances,” Thomas said. “But I don’t understand why you should get a third, a fourth, a fifth.

“I think character matters. So you ask if I think he should be on television? No.”

Pearl has won everywhere he has been: two NCAA Tournament appearances with Milwaukee, six with Tennessee and six with Auburn. He clearly can coach, and he has charisma. But that checkered past hovers over him, and his own words have caused problems for him.

After saying in February that a then-undefeated Miami (Ohio) team didn’t deserve a tournament bid, he changed his tune in March and predicted the RedHawks would get in after hearing blowback. He also stumped for Auburn, his son’s team, prompting Miami athletics director David Sayler to suggest that CBS should’ve put a disclaimer on the screen.

“You can’t be on television advocating for your son against other programs that have every right to have an opportunity to get into the NCAA Tournament,” Thomas said.

Thomas is right on all counts, but it won’t stop Pearl from appearing on Final Four programming Saturday around the Illinois-UConn game. Fortunately for Thomas, he won’t have to watch. He’ll be calling the game alongside play-by-play voice Brian Barnhart on the Illini Sports Network, which includes WLS-AM (890).

Thomas sees a much different game unfolding between the teams than the one they played in November at Madison Square Garden, a 74-61 Huskies victory.

“This is a different Illinois team,” Thomas said. “[Tomislav Ivisic] was just coming off of having his tonsils removed [and a knee injury]. Keaton Wagler was not the same Keaton Wagler that he is currently. That team was nowhere near the team that it is now defensively.

“They had so many moving parts that were new. That early in the season, you’re really trying to learn and figure out who you are. Now they know.”

Thomas isn’t surprised that the episode with Pearl keeps coming up — “People like drama,” he said — but he won’t let it stop him from enjoying his first Final Four experience. He was too young for the 1989 team, and he was still playing professionally for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel when the 2005 team reached the championship game.

“Life is good,” said Thomas, who doubles as the athletic department’s director of major gifts out of the school’s Chicago office. “I tell people on daily basis, I may have a job, but I don’t work.”

Remote patrol

CBS 2 will air a 30-minute Illini special at 6:30 p.m. Friday, “CBS Center Court: Road to the Championship.” Ryan Baker and Jermont Terry, both Illinois alums, will report live from Indianapolis, and Matt Zahn will anchor from the studio.

• Big Ten Network will air three live, on-site shows Saturday around the Final Four: “B1G Live: Final Four Preview” at 11 a.m., “B1G Live: Final Four Pregame” at 4 p.m. and “The B1G Show” at about 10:30 p.m., after the Michigan-Arizona game.

• Chicago Sports Network will air an hourlong pregame show for the White Sox’ home opener Friday starting at noon.

• The Cubs-Guardians game Saturday will air at 6:15 p.m. on Fox 32. Adam Amin, John Smoltz and Ken Rosenthal will call it.

FINAL FOUR

TV: TBS, TNT, truTV.

Streaming: NCAA March Madness Live, HBO Max.

Lineup

2 p.m. — “The Final Four Show” with host Adam Lefkoe and analysts Jamal Mashburn, Candace Parker, Jalen Rose and Chris Webber.

3 p.m. — “At the Final Four” with host Ernie Johnson and analysts Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith and Bruce Pearl.

5:09 p.m. — Illinois vs. UConn with Ian Eagle, analysts Grant Hill and Bill Raftery and reporter Tracy Wolfson. Michigan vs. Arizona follows.