Big Orange Tipoff Club Report: 1/16/08

Today's meeting brought UT's men's basketball radio broadcast duo, Bob & Bert, for an excellent lunch full of old stories and lots of laughter.

Before that, however, Lady Vols assistant coach Dean Lockwood spoke for a few minutes on the state of the program before yielding the floor to Coach Pearl, who spoke candidly about the officiating in the Ole Miss game.

Coach Pearl's father was also in attendance.

Bob entertained the crowd with stories of his early days at the Vol Network and road trips with John Ward, endearing character that he was. Bob also spoke about how coaches are just devastated after each and every loss, because they prepare so much and put so much effort into each and every game. In contrast, Bob said that after a win, Coach Pearl seems to be already focusing on the next opponent before his postgame radio show is over.

Bert told more war stories, including an interesting one that ended with Ernie Grunfeld throwing an uppercut to a Kentucky player while the officials weren't watching. He then spoke of times where he felt physically threatened while broadcasting on the road. Unsurprisingly, Vanderbilt was one of those places.

Next week: Coach Pearl!