He also served as the head coach for the Maccabi USA men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.

He is one of the few Division I basketball coaches who never played high school basketball, even at the junior varsity level (being the only head coach in the 2022 NCAA tournament with that distinction[a]); a shoulder injury while playing football in his first year of high school prevented him from further pursuing sports as a player.

[6] Pearl has also been the head coach at Tennessee, Milwaukee and, prior to that, at Southern Indiana, where he won a Division II national championship.

During the 1988–89 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving Illinois.

During the subsequent NCAA investigation, Thomas denied the allegations and said the story was false, that he was agreeing with Pearl only to try to get rid of him.

Thomas later passed a polygraph test in which he denied Pearl's accusation of Illinois's offering cash and a car.

When Pearl and Collins were both head coaches for four years in the Horizon League, the two men never engaged in the traditional postgame handshake, reportedly due to lingering feelings over the incident.

Pearl posted a 22–7 record in his first season, and led the Eagles to nine straight NCAA D-II tournaments in addition to winning four Great Lakes Valley Conference titles.

Using an intense full-court press, the Panthers scored two upsets in three days over Alabama and Boston College en route to the Sweet Sixteen, where they fell to eventual national runner-up Illinois.

Pearl left UWM after the 2005 season, his fourth, as the Horizon League's leader in all-time winning percentage (51–13, 79.7%).

Having lost their two leading scorers from a team that had been just 14–17 the previous season, Tennessee was picked to finish fifth in the six-team Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference.

Pearl's actions brought national media attention to the Tennessee program, and highlighted efforts to support women's collegiate athletics.

Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt returned the favor on Senior Night for the men's team on February 27, 2007.

The Vols crushed Long Beach State by 35 points in the first round, then rallied to upset Virginia to reach Pearl's second Sweet 16.

The Vols were defeated in the next round by the nation's top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, losing by a point though the Volunteers led the majority of the game.

Pearl was rumored as a candidate for the head coaching position at Iowa, but indicated on March 27, 2007, that he was not interested in leaving Tennessee.

[13] On February 23, 2008, Pearl led the second-ranked Vols into in-state, undefeated rival Memphis to play the # 1 ranked Tigers.

On March 5, 2008, Pearl's team defeated the Florida Gators 89–86 to claim Tennessee's first outright SEC Regular Season Championship in 41 years.

It marked the 35th consecutive victory at home for Pearl and the Vols, beating the previous streak of 33 wins, which extended from January 2, 1966, to February 24, 1968.

In March Pearl would lead the Vols to their first SEC Tournament Final in 20 years, where they would lose in a controversial finish to Mississippi State.

On November 17, 2009, Pearl was able to record victory number 100 at Tennessee, the second fastest UT coach to reach the century mark, as his team defeated UNC-Asheville 124–49.

On February 27, 2010, Tennessee defeated the #2 ranked Kentucky Wildcats in Knoxville, 74–65, cementing the Vols (all 5 years that Pearl has coached) for its 5th straight NCAA tournament appearance.

On Bruce Pearl's 50th birthday, March 18, 2010, Tennessee defeated San Diego State in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament by a score of 62–59.

As a result, Tennessee imposed sanctions on Pearl and his entire staff including $1.5 million in salary reduction over the coming five years and a delayed retention bonus.

This meant that the sanctions imposed on Pearl would remain in force if he was hired by an NCAA member school within that period.

I don’t know how long it will take, but it’s time to rebuild the Auburn basketball program, and bring it to a level of excellence so many of the other teams on campus enjoy.

[29] Before Pearl's fourth season at Auburn, his associate head coach Chuck Person was arrested on charges of corruption and bribery.

[30] Auburn elected to hold sophomores Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy out of games due to eligibility concerns raised over the FBI investigation.

[32][33] Despite the scrutiny both internally and externally and losing two players due to the investigation, Pearl led the 2017–18 team to its best record since 1999 while winning the SEC regular season championship.

[42] Pearl won his 214th game for Auburn at Texas on January 7, 2025, surpassing Joel Eaves for most wins in program history.