Bruce Pearl to grads: This is not a dress rehearsal

When Bruce Pearl arrived in Knoxville in 2005 to take over the men’s basketball program at the University of Tennessee, he quickly identified his biggest problem: expectations were too low. He raised them.

Coach Bruce Pearl addresses South College graduates

Since then, Pearl has presided over the most successful period in Tennessee men’s basketball history. He has led the Tennessee Volunteers to four 20-win seasons, three SEC Eastern Division titles, an SEC championship, the school’s first No. 1 national ranking and four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. He’s been named SEC Coach of the Year twice and earned National Coach of the Year honors two times, as well.

Saturday, Pearl was the commencement speaker at the 127th graduation ceremony for Knoxville’s South College. Two hundred students received their degrees at the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville. Pearl said South College president Steve South asked him to share with the graduates the same pep talk he gives his basketball players, “but clean up the language!”

Some of Pearl’s advice to the graduates:

• Raise your expectations of yourself. Give a special thanks to someone in your life who has had high expectations for you.
• Focus on your strengths. “You are always told to work on your weaknesses,” Pearl said. “But I want you to focus on your positives. Go to your strengths. Go to what you are good at and try to become great at it.”
• Be prepared. “Hard work alone won’t guarantee you success. But without hard work, you won’t be successful,” he said.
• Be persistent and bounce back from setbacks. “Anyone can sail a ship when the seas are calm,” he said. “But how you handle adversity will determine how successful you are. To me, ‘no’ just means, ‘not yet,'” he joked.
• “Find your passion and never let go,” he advised. “The stakes are high.”
• Don’t be afraid to take risks. Pearl said that throughout his career, whenever he felt he had become successful in a job, he accepted a new job – even if it meant a salary cut. “I’ve got to stay on top of my game. I’ve got to be violently obsessive with doing a great job,” he said.
• Be tolerant, he urged the grads. “You young people have to stand up for what’s right,” he said, noting that, as a Jewish man living in a Christian environment, he nonetheless is able to practice his religion as he chooses. “I’m thankful for that,” he said, urging the graduates not to judge people by their looks, their race or their religion.

“This is no dress rehearsal,” Pearl said in conclusion. “This is the real deal. Live this life to the fullest. Be the very best you can be. And enjoy the process.”

Radiology graduates at South College Saturday selected this method to set themselves apart.

Photo credit: Julie Bernal, Moxley Carmichael

Another report on this event: South College President’s Blog.