Gary Parrish

Tennessee held some sort of awards ceremony Monday night. Best I can tell, it was just like any other awards ceremony put on by any other athletic department ... except for the fact that it featured the head basketball coach rapping with no shirt on.

Yep, Bruce Pearl got himself another YouTube clip.

Click this link and check it out.

DETROIT -- Bruce Pearl has reached an agreement in principle to remain at Tennessee.

Details of the agreement are unclear. But the new six-year contract is expected to feature pay increases for Pearl and his asssistants, among other things.

"(UT athletic director) Mike (Hamilton) has been terrifically supportive and committed to making this one of the best jobs in all of college basketball," Pearl said. "I want to ensure the University of Tennessee and its fans that I’m 100 percent committed to this school, this program and our student-athletes.

The new contract was a direct result of Memphis' interest in Pearl.

Memphis is still searching for a new coach to replace John Calipari.

DETROIT -- Tim Floyd will remain at Southern California despite an offer from Arizona and heavy interest from Memphis, sources told CBSSports.com on Thursday.

An official announcement is expected soon.

It's unclear what's next for Arizona.

However, multiple sources told CBSSports.com that Memphis was interested in pursuing Bruce Pearl up until the moment the Tennessee coach agreed to an extension with UT on Thursday night. That's a moot point now, obviously. So Memphis will keep looking for John Calipari's replacement with three ideal candidates -- Mike Anderson (Missouri), Floyd (USC) and Pearl (UT) -- already off the board.

DETROIT -- Bruce Pearl is a realistic candidate at Memphis.

Rick Pitino, not so much.

CBSSports.com was the first to report Pearl as a legitimate candidate to replace John Calipari, and multiple sources have since added that if the Memphis boosters approach Pearl with a lucrative deal he would be open to considering a move to the western side of the state. Meantime, The Commercial Appeal has reported that, in addition to Pearl, the Memphis boosters have expressed an interest in trying to lure Pitino from Louisville with a deal that would give him more money than Calipari just took from Kentucky. But an industry source told CBSSports.com that there's "no way in hell" Pitino would move to Memphis, even if the school promised to make Richard Pitino, Rick's son, the designate coach in waiting.

So the bottom line is this ...

Pitino: No.

Pearl: Show me the money.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Just landed and I'm getting ready to head to Rupp Arena, where the Kentucky Wildcats will host No. 18 LSU this afternoon (only on CBS!). Will Billy Gillispie's team play well, well enough to snap the Tigers' nine-game winning streak? I predicted as much in the Friday Look Ahead , and because I'm usually pretty awesome at predicting stuff it's likely to happen.

What can I say?

But either way, Gillispie will leave the arena afterward and head home to relax.

And man, is that some kind of home or what?

The Lexington Herald Leader ran a story on it Friday, complete with a photo gallery. Click this link to check it out, then click this link to compare it to the home of Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, and then try to tell me being an SEC basketball coach isn't a good profession.

 

Bruce Pearl opened his house to the Knoxville Magazine, and boy is it nice. It's a 10,000 square-foot custom-built beauty that'll make you wish you would've gotten into coaching, and the story comes with a great quote from Pearl, who was a relative unknown until Tennessee hired him three years ago.

He said: "I’m 48 years old. I was poor for about 45 years and have been rich for about three. And it feels great."

Hard to argue with that, isn't it?

Anyway, here's a link to the magazine.

Check it out and then get back to enjoying your relatively crappy house.

There's a poll on the college basketball page right now asking for the best coach in the SEC.

As I type, Billy Gillispie (37 percent) is leading (hello, Kentucky fans!), followed by Billy Donovan (33 percent) and Bruce Pearl (18 percent). And when I looked at the poll I was reminded of a comment Pearl made last weekend when I told him Tennessee fans were taunting Florida fans at the hotel bar (the night before the UT-Florida football game) by screaming how Pearl was 5-1 all-time against Donovan, which is amazing considering Donovan has won national titles in two of the three seasons Pearl has been in the SEC.

Anyway, Pearl downplayed that statistic.

He claimed it was kind of fluky and misleading.

And then he revealed whom he believes to be the SEC's best.

"Billy Donovan is the best," Pearl said. "He just is."

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Al Wilson is apparently terrible at motivational speeches.

That's the only explanation for why Bruce Pearl missed his prediction.

That and the fact that Tennessee isn't very good.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- It did not come with as much flair as usual.

But yes, Bruce Pearl has predicted the Vols will beat Florida ... in football.

"I'm going to predict a Tennessee football win with all due respect to Florida," Pearl said this morning after a workout at Thompson-Boling Arena. "The bottom line is this: We have great respect for Florida; they are an unbelievable team. But we're not underdogs here in Knoxville very often. I tell you what, Al Wilson spoke to the team Friday. I feel good about that. I feel better about our chances to win the game knowing Al Wilson talked to those guys."

This might not seem important in the grand scheme of things. But it should be noted Pearl has a history of great predictions, dating back to 2006 when he went bonkers at a pep rally before a game against a Florida team that was undefeated at the time and in the middle of a national championship season.

This is what he said: "We are your basketball team. I am your basketball coach. And we are going to kick Florida's ass!"

Final score: Vols 80, Gators 76.

And then there was last season, when Tennessee traveled to Memphis to meet the top-ranked and undefeated Tigers. At a pep rally before tip-off, Pearl promised his Vols would "kick Memphis' ass!"

Final score: Vols 66, Tigers 62.

So again, Pearl is good at this sort of thing.

We'll see if he can make it three for three this afternoon.

On another note, Pearl hosted a slew of prospects at this morning's workout -- among them Kenny Hall (ranked 29th in the Class of 2009 by Scout.com) and Josh Selby (ranked seventh in the Class of 2010 by Scout.com) -- though Dominic Cheek (ranked 15th in the Class of 2009 by Scout.com) was not in the building despite an online report earlier this week that stated he would visit. Anyway, a few hundred fans opted to postpone tailgating for an hour to watch Pearl run practice, but it was clear football was still on their minds when they gave the biggest applause of the morning to Marlon Brown, a two-sport athlete from Memphis who is the top-rated football prospect in the state.

Brown was standing on the baseline watching practice when Wayne Chism deflected a pass with his foot and sent the ball flying into the air. Instinctively, Brown stretched out and caught the ball, proving a scouting report that claims he's tall, quick and reliable with his hands is accurate. When Brown hauled it in the fans stood and cheered, and a small chant of Mar-lon ... Mar-lon ... Mar-lon broke out behind the Vols' bench in an attempt to convince the receiver he should commit to catching balls inside Neyland Stadium next fall.

Ever wanted to know how it sounds when a recruit calls a coach and verbally commits?

If so, we've got the video of Emmanuel Negedu ringing Bruce Pearl earlier this week.

Click this link and check it out.

CHARLOTTE -- The coaching carousel is gaining speed, evidence being Wednesday's hiring of Cuonzo Martin at Missouri State and firing of Ben Braun at California. So Missouri State is now filled and Cal is now open. But the best job available is still Indiana, where the names most regularly mentioned as potential replacements are Washington State's Tony Bennett, Xavier's Sean Miller and Tennessee's Bruce Pearl.

Two other names making the rounds here at the East Regional: Pitt's Jamie Dixon and Texas' Rick Barnes.

Would either take the job if offered?

Honestly, it's hard to say -- though all indications are that Barnes is perfectly happy at Texas while a move further west would make more sense for Dixon considering he's from California. Still, multiple sources said Wednesday night that Indiana officials are at least interested to know whether Dixon or Barnes (along with Bennett, Miller and Pearl) would be interested in taking over the Hoosiers program, meaning Dixon and Barnes are legitimate IU targets until they make it clear they don't want to be.

NASHVILLE -- I don't believe Bruce Pearl is delivering a pep talk at a bar today.

And that's unfortunate.

Because his pregame speech to Tennessee fans at Jillian's in downtown Memphis over the weekend was fabulous, if only because he explained how the plan was to "kick Memphis' ass." Honestly, can you think of any other high-profile coach who would yell and sing with fans before coaching the biggest regular season game of his career?

I can't.

But Pearl did.

And you can click this link to see it all go down.

Meantime,  we're about two hours from UT's first game ever as a No. 1 team, and it's not going to be an easy task. It's cold and windy here in Nashville, but Memorial Gym should still be wild enough to create a scene similar to the one at FedExForum three days ago. Of course, the Vols handled that OK, escaped with a 66-62 win over then-top-ranked Memphis. But they've dropped three of their past four games in this building, which is at least partly why Vegas has made Tennessee just a 2-point favorite.

Gregg Doyel wrote a column this week about the National Coach of the Year race.

His pick (at this point): Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.

That's a nice selection, assuming Roy Williams doesn't strangle Coach K before the ceremony.

And though I believe it's too early to name a winner just yet, I feel comfortable providing a list of 15 legitimate candidates.

So here is a list (presented in alphabetical order):

• Rick Barnes (Texas)
• Randy Bennett (Saint Mary's)
• Mike Brey (Notre Dame)
• Jim Calhoun (Connecticut)
• John Calipari (Memphis)
• Keno Davis (Drake)
• Trent Johnson (Stanford)
• Mike Krzyzewski (Duke)
• Sean Miller (Xavier)
• Matt Painter (Purdue)
• Bruce Pearl (Tennessee)
• Bo Ryan (Wisconsin)
• Herb Sendek (Arizona State)
• Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt)
• Brad Stevens (Butler)