The Knoxville News Sentinel today reported the University of Iowa officially contacted the University of Tennessee and requested to talk to Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl and was given permission to talk to the coach.
The paper quotes Pearl as saying he was contacted by Iowa and is not interested in the job. Peral is quoted in the paper as saying: "I listened out of respect for their program. I thanked them for their interest. The thing we need in this program is stability. It would be my decision to be at Tennessee for a long time."
Pearl has been one of the leaders in the speculation about the Iowa job since last Friday when Hawkeye coach Steve Alford left to take the job at New Mexico. Pearl is a former Hawkeye assistant under Tom Davis. Pearl left Iowa for the head job at Division Two Southern Indiana, where he won a national title. He later took over at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and got them to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament before leaving for Tennessee.