Auburn coach Bruce Pearl made his presence known late in the second half of the Tigers’ trip to Tennessee basketball on Wednesday.
And Pearl got a technical foul for his troubles.
Pearl was called for a technical foul with 4:48 left in regulation, with Tennessee leading 79-77 at Thompson-Boling Arena. The former UT coach was unhappy with a no-call on a Josiah-Jordan James block of a Jaylin Williams fast break layup attempt.
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Pearl was out several steps from the coaches box on the visitor’s bench, pleading for a foul call on James. Even after the officiating crew T’d up the Auburn coach, Pearl pointed at his elbow as if to say that he believed James hit Williams in the elbow.
The replay of the sequence didn’t show a clear call either way, and plenty of contact was left uncalled in a physical game between the No. 11-ranked Tigers and No. 4-ranked Vols.
Dalton Knecht split the two free throws, extending the Vols’ lead to three. Tennessee finished off a 92-84 win over Auburn, with Knecht scoring 39 points.
Pearl was unhappy at the end of his last visit to Thompson-Boling Arena, yelling about a no-call on a potential game-tying 3-point attempt at the buzzer of the Vols’ 46-43 win over Auburn last season.
First appeared on www.knoxnews.com