THE BRUCE PEARL/IOWA SCANDAL FOR ZOMBIES

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This is the true story behind the Pearl/Iowa scandal. For twenty-two years, the mass media has mischaracterized the Pearl/Iowa fiasco as a recruiting scandal when, in fact, it is, and always has been, a classic case of stalking. In 1989, then-Iowa assistant coach Bruce Pearl became a frustrated stalker when prize recruit Deon Thomas, a 17- and then 18-year-old kid he had stalked over thousands of hours, spending tens of thousands of dollars, spurned him and his illegal offers. Pearl had spent hundreds of hours just on the telephone, calling Thomas and others at all hours of the day and night, visited him in person in Chicago, tailed Thomas to Europe to watch him play basketball, and hired moles -- people who Pearl thought could persuade this prized-recruit to come to Iowa -- to work on the inside, unbeknownst to Thomas.

.   HELPFUL HINT:  Stay away from Stalkers! Some famous stalkers:
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Many of the things that Pearl did during the Thomas recruitment violated NCAA rules, and all of it was creepy. Satan traveled to Europe to have contact with Deon Thomas on foreign soil, took Thomas and his teammates to the “Red Light” district of Amerstdam, called the teenager after midnight, and made offers of illegal riches to get Thomas and his closest friends and family to come to Iowa. Pearl’s creepiest deception, though, was to enlist Thomas’ “friends” to help in the stalking.


     OTHER RESOURCES:  Illinois counter-charges against Pearl.

Reynaldo Kyles was a school “chum” of Deon Thomas who, though only a junior in high school, Bruce Pearl made a de facto member of the Iowa basketball staff to recruit the McDonald’s All-American. From his Iowa basketball staff budget, Kyles was able to procure transportation, telephone calling privileges, clothing, weekend visits to lovely Iowa City, Iowa, tickets to basketball games and other items. As a junior in high school, Pearl offered Kyles a scholarship to come to Iowa as a “manager.”

Joanna Johnson was the mother of Deon Thomas, and Bruce Pearl obtained a job for her in the financial aid office of a small college. After Deon Thomas signed to play at Illinois, Ms. Johnson lost her job.

Bernice McGary was the Grandmother of Deon Thomas, and Bruce Pearl offered to fix up her house in order to continue his stalking of her Grandson. Pearl did not deny this offer when he was asked about it.

Latisha Scott (senior at Julian H.S.) was Deon Thomas’ girlfriend and another person Pearl tried to manipulate to get to Thomas.

Avery Stallings, Antoine Johnson, Jackie Crawford and others were teammates of Deon Thomas, and Pearl attempted to get in good with them by bribing them with food, clothing and entertainment.

.   OTHER RESOURCES:  A Deadspin article that doesn't suck at all.

There are portions of a transcript of telephone conversations recorded by Bruce Pearl, allegedly involving Deon Thomas. Bruce Pearl also recorded telephone conversations with Thomas on other occasions, as well as many other people in this stalking, including Deon Thomas’ little brother. Just one tape out of all these tapes had what Pearl claimed to be evidence that Thomas had been offered $80,000.00 and a Chevy Blazer to come to Illinois. The transcript and tape were unacceptable as evidence for a myriad of reasons, though, including gaps in the tape, the fact that the original was never handed over, the fact that Pearl made this particular call after midnight during a 48-hour period in which he had harassed the teenager with eight other telephone calls, etc.... Deon Thomas made a mistake that many make with stalkers -- don’t talk to them. Thomas agreed with the post-midnight-leading questions that Pearl harassed him with over the phone -- just to get him to finally give up and get out of his life.


    HELPFUL HINT:  Don’t talk to stalkers!


PEARL’S INCENTIVE TO LIE:  As an assistant coach, Bruce Pearl had to recruit basketball players. He had spent thousands of hours, tens of thousands of dollars, flew across the globe, had developed a huge network of secret “moles,“ and had violated countless NCAA rules to get to Deon Thomas. But his affection was unrequited. Even after turning in Thomas and the University of Illinois on trumped up charges, Pearl still believed that his desire for Thomas would somehow be fulfilled. In a “Confidential Memo” Pearl sent to staffers in the Iowa Athletic Department, Satan actually (and quite insanely) wrote:  “The University of Iowa must remain nameless or we’ll lose any chance of Deon coming to Iowa.” This is an artist’s rendition of an insane Bruce Pearl in a straightjacket:

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.   OTHER RESOURCES:  Stay tuned for Part II, below, including, “10 Proofs That Pearl Lied.”


WARNING:  The opinions expressed herein are stupid and should not be tolerated. No rights reserved. The unauthorized use of this material, or any portion thereof, is hereby authorized. This is a work of friction. The people, places, events and transactions depicted within are frictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, or real places or events is purely transcendental, man.

TEN PROOFS THAT PEARL LIED

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10 PROOFS THAT PEARL LIED
1.  One False Accuser Admits to His Lies. From the actual final report submitted by the NCAA, it is noted that NCAA enforcement “staff  alleged serious violations in the university's recruitment of two prospective student-athletes.”  Did you notice the reference to “two” prospective student-athletes? The other one was LaPhonso Ellis, a Parade and McDonald’s All-American selection from East St. Louis who ended up attending Notre Dame. Ellis changed his story a lot, but the first version had Illinois offering him $5,000 to sign up and $5,000 per year while he stayed in school.

Headlines across the nation splashed Ellis' sensational accusations, and it seemed to back up Bruce Pearl's account about pay-to-play at Illinois. The problem was that it was all a big lie. Only one of the “two” prospective student-athletes eventually attended the NCAA hearing, as LaPhonso Ellis got a bout of conscience right before it started, forcing the NCAA to dismiss a number of allegations, including Ellis’ allegation that Illinois had offered him money to come to play at the university.

As is usual with the mass media, the Ellis accusations appeared on the front page of the sports section. The fact that he recanted and admitted to the lies appeared on the back page -- if it appeared at all. On March 15, 2011, the 1989 NCAA witch hunt against Illinois took another hit when now-ESPN basketball commentator LaPhonso Ellis -- during broadcast of an NIT game between Alabama and the College of Charleston -- publicly admitted that Illinois had offered him NOTHING to play at the university.

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  HELPFUL HINT:  Don't listen to Digger Phelps!

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2.  It Doesn't Pass the Smell Test.  Most people don’t realize that the famous telephone call between Bruce Pearl and Deon Thomas took place AFTER Deon had already committed to the Illini. This is proof that Pearl was a stalker. It was established that Pearl had called Thomas 9 times over a 48-hour period just on that one day -- AFTER Deon Thomas had committed to the Illini.

There is only one logical answer to the question of why the recruit finally answered “yes” to the repeated leading questions from the stalker who called him after midnight, who called him 9 times in 48 hours, and who called him AFTER he had already committed to the Illini -- Thomas wanted to get the stalker off the line and out of his life. The ONLY possible way that the scenario Pearl described could be true is if Deon Thomas had been trying to get Iowa to out-bid Illinois, but there is nothing of the sort in the transcript, and Pearl and Iowa never made that charge. Moreover, Pearl called Deon Thomas hundreds and hundreds of times. Yet, Thomas supposedly waited until after he had committed to Illinois to tell Pearl about Blazers and 200K? Does not pass the smell test.


3.  This Wasn't "Where's Waldo?"  Deon Thomas was 6-9 and well over 200 pounds. He was big. He was bad. He was very conspicuous. Here’s a picture of Deon Thomas as an Illini:.

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A Chevy Blazer is a pretty distinctive vehicle. In 1989 and 1990, people were just starting to buy these new-fangled SUVs, although the Jeep Cherokee had been around awhile, and the Land Rover was on American soil. In 1989 and 1990, however, they were something of an oddity, especially when the top-selling cars were all sedans, including the Honda Accord, Ford Taurus, Ford Escort, Chevy Cavalier, Toyota Camry and Chevy Corsica/Beretta. So a big, fancy 1989-1990 Chevy Blazer like the one pictured below would really stand out, and Illinois had plenty of time to get that Blazer to Thomas between the time of the alleged offer and when the Illini first became aware of the NCAA investigation:

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When you put the two together, you get a sight that is IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS. Yet, after a 16-month investigation which included interviews of hundreds of people in Champaign and Chicago and included the actual stalking of Deon Thomas by NCAA investigators (more on this later) nobody had seen it:

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.4.  It Took You Sixteen Months to Find Jack****?  The NCAA investigation into Bruce Peal’s allegations lasted a whopping sixteen (16) months. To put that into some perspective, the Duke Lacrosse Rape Hoax involved highly technical evidence, including DNA, and it was investigated -- first by the Durham police -- and then re-investigated -- by the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office -- in only 13 months.

In “Operation Mountain Express III,” it took the DEA 12 months to round up more than 100 people across the nation and charge them with trafficking in meth and/or its precursor drug.  The investigation and eventual arrest of Hollywood legend and actor Robert Blake (“Baretta” and Mickey in “Our Gang”) for the alleged murder of his wife took 12 months.  The NCAA's lengthy 16-month-long investigation produced no credible evidence to believe the allegation that Illinois offered Deon Thomas money or a car to accept a scholarship.

5.  Who has had the history of cheating and lying to the NCAA?  Not Jimmy Collins. Not Deon Thomas. Bruce Pearl, that’s who. Satan left Iowa for a head-coaching position at the University of Southern Indiana, where he violated NCAA rules on two occasions. He then moved on to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he again violated NCAA rules, finally ending up at the University of Tennessee where he again violated NCAA rules. Pearl’s Knoxville rules violations and his cover-up were so audacious, UT finally had to terminate him.

The UW-Milwuakee violation involved the same type of transgression that Pearl lied about at Tennessee: Having contact with a high school junior in his home. The zebra couldn’t change his stripes. Deon Thomas took a lie detector test in which he was asked a variety of questions about Illinois’ recruiting. He passed the test without a problem. For more information, see the 2/24/1990 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sports section page 1C. The examiner concluded that “[a]fter a thorough analysis of the polygraph record, it is the opinion of this examiner that (Thomas) told the truth through his examination and is not now intentionally withholding pertinent information.”

It was Pearl who had the habit of lying to the NCAA, and it was Pearl who had the habit of violating NCAA rules. It was Bruce Pearl who was, and is, the Biggest Loser.

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6.  Besides the Ridiculous LaPhonso Ellis Claim, There Was Another.  Satan claimed that big-time recruit Marcus Liberty had received $75,000 and a new car. Liberty would’ve had this new car by the time the NCAA initiated its 16-month investigation. If the allegation was true, Illinois had at least a year and one-half to make sure Liberty received his brand new automobile by the time the Illini had notice of the NCAA investigation in February 1990. But after a 16-month investigation with hundreds of people being interviewed in Chicago and Champaign, nobody saw this:

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Although LaPhonso Ellis initially claimed to have received an offer of $5,000 to sign and $5,000 every year that he remained at Illinois, the accusation later morphed to $85,000 and a car. Note how LaPhonso Ellis apparently wanted to be worth $5,000 more than Deon Thomas!

Bobby Knight also claimed that Illinois cheated in the recruitment of Lowell Hamilton. The NCAA sniffed around and found NOTHING to support Knight‘s claim -- other than his claim was the legal equivalent of a throwing-a-chair-across-the-court temper tantrum because Knight missed on a big-time recruit.  Add the allegations up. That’s right, four allegations of cheating for four different recruits and not a single one found credible by the NCAA. When do the people making false accusations start to lose their credibility? In the Wenatchee Child Sex Ring Hoax, it took false accusations that resulted in the arrest of 43 adults “on 29,726 charges of child sex abuse involving 60 children” before someone smelled a rat. It took the deaths of twenty people during the Salem Witch Trials, fourteen by hanging, five dying in prison, and one being crushed to death by heavy stones before the false accusers were found out.

7.  The Tape Itself.  It is only 6 minutes long, but the conversation took 14 minutes according to telephone records that Illinois had to subpoena. This indicates that the small 6-minute snippet that Bruce Pearl turned over DID NOT contain the totality of the conversation.  Also, and this is based upon information and belief, the 6-minute tape contains the “Hello” that you hear at the beginning of a telephone conversation and the click and dial tone you hear at the end of one. So, this shows that Bruce Pearl intentionally doctored the tape and then pawned it off as an original.  In other words, he lied again.  Pearl would never turn over the original tape, and, moreover, he never turned over tapes he made of other people and other tapes he made of Deon Thomas. Illinois eventually became aware of at least 5 or 6 additional tapes, and only Pearl knows how many more he hid from Illinois and the NCAA.

Since 1745, the “Best Evidence Rule” has been an institution of English and later American law. In a nutshell, the Best Evidence Rule provides that if an original of a document or video cannot be produced at a legal hearing, there is a significant chance of error or fraud in relying on a copy. Thus, judges always require an original -- or a really good reason for a copy. Bruce Pearl was caught in a lie within the lie when Illinois’ attorneys proved that Pearl had to have altered the tape. After being caught tampering with the evidence, Satan had nothing to gain in providing the original copy and possibly everything to lose. 

Another legal doctrine that would have applied to the Pearl tape is called “Spoliation of Evidence.” Think of it as the intentional act of spoiling evidence. “[S]poliation of evidence is the intentional or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding.”

When evidence is “spoiled” or altered or hidden by a party, the court or trier of fact can then assume that the evidence would have been negative for the “spoiler.” “The theory of the spoliation inference is that when a party destroys evidence, it may be reasonable to infer that the party had ‘consciousness of guilt’ or other motivation to avoid the evidence.” Dictionaries define “spoliation” as “the intentional destruction of a document or an alteration of it that destroys its value as evidence.”

8.  The Amount of Money Involved.  In 1990, $80,000.00 and a new Chevy Blazer was a significant amount of jack. A 1990 Chevy Blazer retailed for $19,480.  But that price didn’t cover everything:  “The Blazer retails for $19,480 USD with a invoice price of USD for the base model with no options. A standard delivery charge of USD is also applicable. Additional options and trim levels can raise the price significantly.”

Pearl claimed in his memo that the University of Illinois was also going to find a new apartment and relocate Deon Thomas’ grandmother while he played at Illinois. A low-end rental in Chicago during 1990 for a somewhat decent apartment would be about $268.00 per month. $268.00 X 36 = $9,648.00. For 48 months, that comes to $12,864.

According to his last memo on the subject, Pearl claimed that Illinois offered Thomas $85,000 and a Chevy Blazer. That’s a change in his story and an additional $5,000. That’s a total of between $114,128 and $117,344. If you adjust for inflation, that’s between approximately $210,000 and $213,000+ in 2011 dollars depending upon which inflation calculator you use.

If you add in the amounts allegedly offered to Marcus Liberty ($75,000 + Blazer) and the last amount claimed by LaPhonso Ellis ($85,000 + car), you get a total sum, adjusted for inflation, of approximately $567,940.00 -- well over half a million dollars. Unlike Lexington, Kentucky, with all of the thoroughbred horse and gambling money, or Detroit, with all of the crime and industry money, Champaign would only be able to come up with that amount of disposable income through corn money, holding up Busey Bank, and asking a bunch of professors to cash in their IRA’s.

9.  The Silly Ludicrous-ness of It All.  Illinois was having a Golden Age of basketball. The “Flyin’ Illini” was all the rage, and Dick Vitale couldn’t stop talking about the high-flying boys from Illinois. The 1989 team finished with a 31-5 record and an appearance in the NCAA Final Four. The recruitment of Deon Thomas culminated just as Illinois reached the Final Four and played an exciting semifinal game against Michigan. Iowa lost in the second round that year. Minnesota, another player in the recruitment, lost in the third round.

Moreover, Illinois was a #1 seed in the 1989 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Iowa was a #4 seed, Minnesota was at #11. Players on that “Flyin’ Illini” team included two friends of Deon Thomas from the same Chicago high school:  Nick Anderson and Ervin Small. Anderson would be selected as the eleventh pick in the NBA draft later that year by the Orlando Magic. There was playing time to be had by Thomas with the graduations of Kenny Battle and Lowell Hamilton. Finally, Ben Wilson was a tragic, but still sadly magical, name that Deon Thomas could relate to. As the best player in the country at Simeon Career Academy, Wilson had committed to play for the Illini only a couple of years previously, and only a couple of days after that, he was gunned down. Thomas played his high school ball in Simeon’s gymnasium named after Illini commit Ben Wilson.

Illinois was painted the villain even though the evidence showed that Pearl was violating NCAA recruiting rules with regard to Deon Thomas -- and Illinois wasn’t. The evidence showed that Bruce Pearl was a bad actor, that there was no logic or reasonableness behind the major allegations, and that this was a setup. This included:


A.  LaPhonso Ellis not even showing up for the hearing.

B.  The NCAA admitting, on paper, that they had no credible evidence to suggest that Illinois offered Ellis or Thomas any money or cars to sign with the University.

C.  The NCAA pointing to the sale of automobiles by a local dealership to three current or former players on the team, yet those sales included prices for used vehicles that were at or higher than Bluebook, and interest rates that ranged from 10.5% to 11.49% to as much as 12.61%! (Note: The interest rates are so high for these Illinois student-athletes that if the loans were made today,  EACH INTEREST RATE would be usurious pursuant to the Illinois Usury Statutes ILCS Chapter 800.). One of the students paid $7,400 for a used, four-year-old SUV, which had a brand new retail price -- back in 1984 -- of around $10,000. On top of that, the student-athlete had to pay OVER 12.61% as an interest rate.

D.  Opposing coaches or assistant coaches were 0-4 in their allegations against Illinois. Moreover, the evidence at the hearing showed that the only automobile benefit received by Illini student-athletes was the option of taking out a bad loan with a high interest rate for an over-priced used car.

E.  Satan was actually tape-recording conversations he had after midnight with teenagers.

F.  Satan enlisted spies and moles like Deon Thomas’ supposed friend Reynaldo Kyles to snoop on Thomas and report back to Pearl. Pearl called Kyles 118 times.

G.  Satan paid Kyles (and probably others) to do his bidding. He had Kyles fly out to Iowa and offered him a scholarship as a manager when Kyles was only a junior in high school.

H.  Bruce Pearl had numerous illegal and excessive contacts with Thomas and Thomas’ family, friends and teammates. This included, among many others, flying out to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to wine and dine Thomas and his teammates at a local McDonald’s, followed by a trip to that city’s “Red-Light” district.

I.  Satan had a motive to lie to get Deon Thomas to Iowa. This is proved by his own words; first, his memo to the Iowa Athletic Department describing his desire to (insanely) seek to recruit Deon Thomas after the NCAA investigation concluded -- like the true stalker he was; and second, by his own words in this actual transcript of a recorded conversation with his Simeon Career Academy mole, Reynaldo Kyles:
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J.  Satan had a motive to lie to cover his own misdeeds. He had just made numerous illegal offers to Deon Thomas, and now Thomas was going to end up at Illinois. What better way to hide your own transgressions than by blaming someone else?

K. Satan had an Iowa alum offer a job to Deon Thomas’ mother, a job that would not be there after Deon had committed to Illinois.

L. Satan supported his Machiavellian machinations by enlisting the aid of Rich Hilliard, his college roommate at Boston College, who happened to be the NCAA’s Chief Enforcement Officer and later Director of Enforcement, and a person who Satan contacted no less than 5 times in the few weeks before officially lodging his false accusations. And Hilliard was no prize for integrity, as he would later be sued for malpractice handling an NCAA claim and then suspended by the Illinois State Bar for taking another client’s funds to pay off his gambling debts. And Hilliard’s other “partner in crime” in the Deon Thomas fiasco was no gem, as he is reported to have stalked Thomas unmercifully, even running up and down a basketball court calling the “student-athlete” names.

M.  Deon Thomas was described by every adult who knew him at the time to be a "shy" and unassuming 17-year-old kid. As we all know, and as Thomas himself aptly put it a decade later, Pearl was a "snake." It was not a fair fight, especially with the amount of stalking involved, and the lateness of the hour.

N.  And there was the fact that this was an allegation that Deon Thomas -- after first committing to Illinois -- then goes on the record to spill the beans on his secret, illegal deal -- with Illinois!

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10.  The "Oh Yeah, I Done That **** What They Said I Done" Club.  Mike Jarvis (St. Johns), Bruce Pearl (USI, UW-Milwaukee, Tennessee), Jim O’Brien (Ohio State), Kelvin Sampson (Oklahoma, Indiana), Todd Bozeman (Cal), Tim Floyd (USC), Jim Harrick (Georgia), Clem Haskins (Minnesota), Dana Kirk (Memphis), Rick Herdes (USI), Eddie Sutton (Kentucky) and Dave Bliss (Baylor). What do they all have in common? That’s right, a history of NCAA violations. What else do they have in common? They all owned up to their misdeeds. (Yes, I know that O’Brien filed a suit and won in court over his termination, but he admitted to the loan of $6,000 to a recruit’s mother, and even Eddie Sutton admitted to not having control over the Kentucky basketball program.). Yet, 22 years after Jimmy Collins and Deon Thomas were alleged to have violated NCAA rules, they have never changed their story. Not once. That is only easy to do if you’re telling the truth. Pearl’s standard response, on the other hand, has been “No comment.” Jimmy Collins is on the record saying, “That's why it hurt so bad, because I knew it wasn't true, and I knew that they knew it wasn't true," and he’s on the record calling Pearl a “shyster," and “one of those ‘he-who-smelt-it-dealt-it guys.’ " Deon Thomas simply calls Pearl a “snake.”

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11.  (Your Free Bonus Proof!). The NCAA Had the Easiest Burden of Proof in All of the Legal World.  A "burden of proof" is shorthand for how convincing your evidence has to be to get a conviction or finding of liability. A direct quote from the actual NCAA report of the alleged infractions:  “The committee must ‘base its findings [of violations] on information presented to it that it determines to be credible, persuasive and of a kind on which reasonably prudent persons rely in the conduct of serious affairs’ [Bylaw 32.6.6.2].).” In other words, the burden of proof was the equivalent in business of an especially firm handshake. Actually, it's very similar to probable cause.

Our Iowa, Indiana, Notre Dame and Tennessee readers are no doubt familiar with the concept of “probable cause,” as they’ve had to deal with it in their personal lives, but for our Illini readers, here is a classic definition:  Probable cause is “a reasonable amount of suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong to justify a prudent and cautious person’s belief that certain facts are probably true.” As you can see, the definition of probable cause is very similar to the burden of proof that Illinois faced in the 1990 NCAA hearing. As you may know, probable cause is the lowest standard in the American criminal system, and it is the basic requirement for a police officer to arrest a person or for a judge to issue a search warrant. It is the first burden of proof that an alleged criminal must face. By the time the case goes to trial, the burden of proof gets much higher, in most cases, to beyond a reasonable doubt.

The NCAA enforcement staff had about the easiest burden of proof in the legal world to hurdle in order to pin the Bruce Pearl charges on Illinois. Even after 16 months of investigation -- more like stalking -- the NCAA could not. If this was a criminal case, there wouldn't have been proof enough even for an arrest. Some silly fun:

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FALLOUT FROM THE PEARL LIES

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FALLOUT FROM THE PEARL LIES


Beyond the probation, the loss of off-campus recruiting, the one year NCAA basketball tournament ban, and the other minor punishments, the Illini suffered even greater damage because of the lies of Bruce Pearl. The notoriety was immense, including pieces in The New York Times, from the Associated Press, and even broadcast into America’s living rooms by Peter Jennings on the ABC Evening News on June 15, 1990.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."  Those are words from Sir Winston Churchill, and they aptly describe the effect of Bruce Pearl’s lies about Illinois. The false accusations were front-page news. The fact the Illini were innocent of the charges of paying thousands of dollars and cars to Deon Thomas or LaPhonso Ellis (or even Marcus Liberty or Lowell Hamilton) did not come out at all or was buried on the back of the sports page, and then at the end of a short article. Churchill also noted, “Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." That also happened in this case. The mass media was not interested in the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth when it came out. That wouldn’t fit into a sound byte or a newspaper column.

On top of the bad publicity, the Illini had Jamie Brandon signed to a letter of intent, and he even showed up for summer school but shortly left for LSU. Cuonzo Martin’s coach said he would have committed to the Illini but for the NCAA investigation. Juwan Howard had the Illini in his list of final eight schools, but his coach, Richard Cook noted:


“I like (Illinois head coach Lou) Henson and Collins both, but I don`t know whether I`d encourage Juwan to go there right now. If there`s any kind of serious problems, I`m sure he won`t be going there.”


The last quote came from the Chicago Tribune, and it shows how local and regional media reports were perhaps even more devastating than the national coverage. Lou Henson’s recruiting never fully recovered. Another Tribune piece “reported” the following: 


Brandon, Illinois Say Goodbye
August 04, 1990|By Barry Temkin.

“Illinois` winning streak in tapping the bountiful basketball talent supply in the Chicago Public League apparently ended Friday with the disclosure that former King star Jamie Brandon had left summer school at the university.”


From another article about Jamie Brandon -- who eventually ended up at LSU playing a supporting role to Shaquille O’Neal -- the following:

“Brandon, a 6-4, 200-pound guard, was the leading scorer and rebounder on King's 32-0 team that swept city, state and mythical national championships in 1990. He was the Sun-Times Player of the Year. A rare three-time All-State selection, he became one of only five players in state history to score more than 3,000 points in his career. … ‘I should have stayed in Champaign. That's where I really wanted to be, where my heart was," Brandon said. "But I got bad advice. I listened to the wrong people. But I was young and I made a mistake.’ "


It took Lou Henson a number of years to build momentum with the program and recruiting. He started out in the 1975-1976 season and by 1989 was at the top of his game with a Final Four team and #1 recruits wanting to wear the Orange and Blue. That was thirteen years of work and sweat down the drain because of a false accusation. Moreover, Lou Do was on a streak of eight straight NCAA Tournament appearances, a streak that was immediately broken with a two-year absence from post-season play -- one of those years directly caused by the Pearl lies and the NCAA, the other indirectly.

The cost to the University of Illinois in financial terms can only be guessed. There was the immediate impact of attorney’s fees and other expenses, but that likely pales in comparison to the lost revenue due to slower ticket sales, t-shirts, NCAA tournament revenue and the like. 

One of the consequences of the Bruce Pearl lies was the birth of the Bruce Pearl as a martyr myth. Satan cried crocodile tears about being black-balled from the coaching profession, but the fact is that he got a head coaching job only 18 months after the NCAA investigation of Illinois. This reminds me of the excuses given for the rise of Hitler:  If it wasn’t for the tough sanctions imposed in the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler would not have emerged. Of course, in preceding wars, the sanction for losing was the occupation of all territory and, in some cases, the enslavement of entire populations.

Pearl went on to leave a swath of destruction at the University of Southern Indiana. where he was found to have committed two violations during his tenure. His assistant at USI became the head coach after Pearl left for UW-Milwaukee. That assistant was later fired by USI, as the NCAA found major infractions committed by the coach and his staff -- including lying to investigators.

Pearl’s lies and cheating, which went unpunished at Iowa, again at USI and again at UW-Milwaukee, led to increased feelings of personal invulnerability and, eventually, the downfall of Satan at Tennessee. Without punishment an offender is more likely to continue to offend, usually going farther and farther with his violations. But what is even harder to define than the shady recruiting tricks and illegal activities of a single coach -- who is trying to hide his violations -- is the effect on the sport as a whole.

When one coach is seen to gain illegal recruiting advantages without punishment, other coaches are apt to take the same easy way out, and, in time, fans begin to question the game itself. “Everybody does it,” is what some will say. In fact, if you google the quote “everybody does it” along with the words “recruiting” and “basketball,” you’ll get about 96,500 results. Here's a screengrab to prove it:

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That’s disgusting and unacceptable, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Bruce Pearl inspired many of those results. Others will even defend the shameful with, “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying.” Pearl has had his hand in tarnishing the brand as well as being involved as the wrongful accuser in the college basketball equivalent of the Salem Witch Trials or the Duke Lacrosse Scandal.

Most importantly, Pearl’s lies unfairly tarnished the University of Illinois and good people like Lou Henson, Jimmy Collins and especially Deon Thomas. Deon Thomas did not deserve or need the unwarranted scrutiny and the hassle caused by Pearl’s willful lies. How much did it affect his basketball? Nobody knows. What would the Illini have been like with teams that included Deon Thomas, Jamie Brandon, Juwan Howard, Robert Bennett, Shelly Clark, Andy Kaufmann, Richard Keene, Kiwane Garris, Tom Michael, T.J. Wheeler and others? Thomas has indicated that he’s over Pearl, though, and by 2009, he became the Athletic Director and Men’s Basketball Coach for Lewis and Clark Community College. I do believe that Deon Thomas expertly summed up Bruce Pearl with the name "Snake."

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Jimmy Collins may have become the head basketball coach for the University of Illinois upon the retirement of “Lou Do.” Surely there can be little doubt that a highly successful recruiter and assistant coach from a Final Four team would have been in line for some major offers. Some may forget that Collins was not only an effective recruiter and assistant coach, but he was also a player on Henson’s New Mexico State Final Four team, a first-round draft pick in the NBA, and a player with the Chicago Bulls. Pearl got his head coaching position in 18 months. It took Collins 6 years.

Twenty-one NCAA Tournament appearances. 749 wins. Two Final Fours. If you just consider the number of NCAA Division One Basketball Tournament appearances, you have enough proof that Lou Henson deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. There are 308 schools playing Division One basketball that don’t have as many NCAA Tournament appearances -- in their entire history -- than Henson. Lou Do has more tourney appearances than Michigan, North Carolina State, LSU, Memphis, Boston College and DePaul to name a very few, and only two fewer than the entire history of Ohio State Buckeye basketball. He has more appearances than Oregon and Baylor and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Harvard combined.

With 749 wins, Lou Henson is 11th on the list of wins among Division One coaches all time. Now, I don’t have anything against Edgar Diddle, as I’m sure he was a good guy and an excellent coach, and he certainly deserves to be in the basketball Hall of Fame, but this pioneering Western Kentucky coach had a total of three NCAA Tournament appearances. Lou Henson has the same number of appearances to his name as the entire history of Western Kentucky Hilltopper basketball. Diddle’s one Elite Eight doesn’t stand up to Henson’s two Final Fours with two different teams.

Yet, to this day, Lou Henson has not been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame or the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Edgar Diddle is in both. Some final fun:



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