Deon Thomas reflects on Bruce Pearl’s false allegations, Illini pain

Illinois basketball radio broadcaster and all-time main scorer Deon Thomasadditionally a former Lewis & Clark males’s basketball head coach, appeared as a visitor Friday on the “Spiegel & Holmes Show” on WSCR-AM 670. The matter of TBS broadcaster Bruce Pearl got here up.

Pearl’s actions as an Iowa Hawkeyes assistant coach led to Thomas being pressured to sit down out his freshman yr throughout 1989-90 at Illinois and tainted the Illinois basketball program, former head coach Lou Hensonand former assistant coach Jimmy Collins with a status for dishonest, although no proof of impropriety ever surfaced.

Thomasa member of the Illinois program from 1989-94, stated Friday that Pearl‘s actions had been “very hurtful.”

“When you are going through what I went through as a 17-year-old, having someone tell mistruths about you, even though you know what your character is and who you are, it was very hurtful in certain ways to have my character questioned in that way,” Thomas stated. “But to be quite honest, I knew I did not do anything wrong. I knew Jimmy Collins did not do anything wrong. So what seriously affected me and really hurt me was the fact that I did not get to play with Kendall Gill, Steve Bardoand the rest of those guys from that ’89 (Final Four) team. I think if we play, we’re right back in the Final Four. So that was one thing that was crushing to me.”

collins was the lead recruiter for Illinois in its pursuit of Thomas, and Pearl alleged to the NCAA that Thomas was given a Chevy Blazer and $80,000. Collins, who died in 2020, performed for Henson at New Mexico State, then was an assistant coach at Illinois from 1983-96.

“The next thing was the effect that it had on Jimmy Collins‘ career, who was someone that was really, really close to me — like a father figure to me, that was very important in my life as a teacher, as a mentor,” Thomas stated. “I believe he would have been the next coach at the University of Illinois, succeeding Coach Henson. … To have him affected by that, to have the team affected by that, and to be quite honest, to have coach Henson’s legacy affected by a lie was truly hurtful to me and to that program.”

Thomas stated Friday that he understands Illinois followers who discover Pearl’s actions unforgivable, however Thomas stated he has moved on himself.

“That’s one of those things that you can never really forgive,” Thomas stated. “If you ask anyone from Illini nation, especially that are anywhere around my age, that’s the very first thing that they walk up to me, and they say, ‘Man, I hate Bruce Pearl.’ And I tell them, ‘I understand. I get it. I completely understand.’ But one of the things my granny always said to me, ‘Deon, you forgive people. You don’t forgive them for them. But you forgive them for you, so they no longer have control of your life.’ So until someone brings that guy up to me, I swear to God, he doesn’t even cross my mind.”

Bruce Pearl is prominently featured on the TBS broadcast of the NCAA Tournament this yr after retiring this fall and turning over the Auburn basketball program to his son, Steven Pearl.

“The number of text messages and emails that I have received about Bruce — I have not received this in 15, 20, 25 years,” Thomas he stated. “He has definitely been the hot topic. I learned a long time ago that when he comes up — in some shape, form, or fashion — there will be something that comes up about me. But let’s just be quite honest, he keeps putting himself in that situation. I mean him going out there and trying to advocate for his son to get into the NCAA Tournament, while there were other teams that were better. You’re up there to be an analyst. You’re not up there to be a cheerleader for your former program that you left right before (the season so) they could have any ability to choose a different coach, so they had to take their son. And now you want to be an advocate for that. That’s not what you’re there for.

Thomas said that Bruce Pearl apologized to him at the 2011 Final Four in New Orleans for making false accusations against the Illinois basketball program, citing being an “overzealous recruiter.”

“Bruce got here out of, I feel, Emeril Lagasse’s restaurant,” Thomas said. “He got here operating out calling me down the road. … Fast ahead, we’re inside. He’s like, ‘Deon, I simply wish to apologize to you. I used to be an overzealous recruiter at the moment, and I’m sorry. But I by no means stated something detrimental about you.’ I stated, ‘Well, I respect you not saying something detrimental about me, however what you stated nonetheless affected me. And it took you 20-plus years to return again and apologize to me, so if it is good for you that this apology is accepted. OK, however for me, it does not matter. It’s 20-plus years too late. So have day.’ And we turned, and we walked down the road, and we left. I do not know what that did for him, however it did completely nothing for me, as a result of it was already over in my eyes.”

Thomas, the Lewis and Clark Community College head men’s basketball coach and athletics director from 2009-14, said he is in his 10th year as Illinois men’s basketball radio broadcaster and really enjoying it.

“I adore it; I like being round this workforce,” Thomas said. “I like doing what I do now on the radio. … I’ve been working within the (University of Illinois) athletic division as a director of main presents in Chicago. So I’m round athletics. I’m across the basketball workforce. Bro, I obtained the 2 greatest jobs on the planet. They should not work. They’re simply jobs, and I do them as a result of I like Illini nation. That college modified my life each. I’m so proud day of issues I’m doing proper now.”