KNOXVILLE — Bruce Pearl climbed the ladder Sunday afternoon, made one snip with the scissors and joyously cut down the first Southeastern Conference regular-season championship nets won by the Tennessee men in 41 years.

This is the moment Pearl had waited for most of his life. Through 14 years at Tom Davis’ side at Boston College, Stanford and Iowa. Through nine years at Division II Southern Indiana. Through four more years at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

After 27 years in college basketball’s shadows, after three years rebuilding Big Orange hoops, Pearl was now on top of the ladder, both figuratively and literally. So surely this nylon net would stay with him. Surely he would display it around his neck, then take it home and frame it, his personal trophy for a coaching job brilliantly done.

Only he didn’t. Instead, as the Thompson-Boling crowd lustily cheered their charismatic coach, Pearl turned to UT athletic director Mike Hamilton and handed him the net. The two men instantly embraced in a long, strong bear hug, two underdogs joining forces to overwhelm college basketball.

After all, much as Pearl had, in UT senior guard JaJuan Smith’s words, “Come from the bottom, just like us (players),” Hamilton hadn’t exactly traveled a traditional path to run UT athletics. He was an idea guy. A thinker. A suit in a business long dominated by ex-jocks.

But he had also been the assistant that retired Vols athletic director Doug Dickey once assigned to follow the basketball program during former coach Buzz Peterson’s tenure. He had often been in the locker room as Peterson’s final season unraveled. He had seen the pain and frustration on the faces and in the voices of Smith, Chris Lofton and Jordan Howell, all freshmen during that lost winter of 2005.

“I was thinking of transferring,” said Lofton. “Mike sat down with me and said, ‘Just stay for a little while. Wait and see who we get. It’s going to all work out.’”

Added Smith, “When the coaching change happened, Mike met with each of us individually. He told us he was going to bring in somebody we’d all want to play for. I remember that time. There was a lot of heat on him.”

So when the net-cutting began at the close of Sunday’s 89-56 humbling of South Carolina, Howell, Lofton and Smith all motioned for Hamilton to leave the stands and join them on the court.

And once there, Pearl handed Hamilton the net, which the AD eventually pulled over his head and wore around his neck.

“It was a great feeling to see him get that net,” said Smith. “Most of the time, Mike doesn’t get any of the glory.”

Hamilton said this championship isn’t about him. He shrugged off Pearl’s gesture with a smile and a joke: “Bruce is just working for his next raise,” he said.

But Hamilton also told the three seniors three years ago, “You guys are going to win a championship.”

The seniors responded, “When we do, you get a piece of the net.”

That everybody kept their word is another reason to admire all involved. Lofton certainly could have transferred. Hamilton’s hunch about Pearl could have proved wrong. Or Pearl might have seen more problems than promise at UT and looked elsewhere for work.

Even this storybook season, with its brief No. 1 ranking and possible No. 1 seed, could have been slightly less successful. “If (sophomore forward) Tyler Smith doesn’t get his waiver,” said Hamilton, his voice trailing off after referencing the NCAA ruling that allowed Smith immediate eligibility upon transferring from Iowa last summer.

“It took the right cast to make this happen so quickly.”

The right cast and the right director.

For as Lofton said while signing autograph after autograph, “Mike was the one who gave Coach a chance.”

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