I know some of my fellow Illinois fans likely will tune out ESPN’s College GameDay show for basketball this year. The network just hired Bruce Pearl to be one of its analysts.

Even though it’s been more than 20 years, the folks in Champaign haven’t forgotten how Pearl got the Illini in major hot water with the NCAA. Then an assistant coach at Iowa, he accused Illinois of offering $80,000 and a Chevy Blazer to sign Chicago high school star Deon Thomas. The NCAA never found Illinois guilty of the charge, but it still slammed the program with penalties.

I covered the messy story for the Chicago Tribune, and it was one of the more interesting years of my career.

Much has happened since then. Pearl went on to have considerable success before he ran into his own NCAA problems at Tennessee. Now he has found refuge at ESPN.

All I can say is the bitterness over Pearl still runs deep at my former school. If I’m ESPN, probably not a good idea to do a College GameDay live from Champaign if Pearl is on the panel.

From the release:

Former college basketball coaches Bruce Pearl and Seth Greenberg have joined ESPN as men’s college basketball analysts and ESPN’s Jalen Rose will be added to the college basketball commentator team, it was announced today by Mark Gross, ESPN Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, Production. Pearl and Greenberg will each serve as studio analysts throughout the season and will call select games from various conferences. Rose will be a featured analyst on the weekly College GameDay as well as other college basketball studio programming, and will work as a game analyst for a series of matchups. Additionally, all three will contribute college basketball commentary to ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and other ESPN outlets.

“Both Seth and Bruce bring a contemporary coaching perspective and a great ability to break down the action in an entertaining style,” Gross said. “Jalen’s NBA analysis has been insightful and engaging and that style will translate to the college game where he’s remained closely connected since the ‘Fab Five’ days.”

Greenberg, who served as a guest ESPN studio analyst during the 2012 NCAA Tournament, most recently coached Virginia Tech for nine seasons (2003-2012). While there, he compiled a 170-123 record. Prior to that, Greenberg had head coaching stints at South Florida (1996-2003) and Long Beach (1990-1996). He was previously an assistant coach at Long Beach, Miami, Virginia, Pittsburgh and Columbia. He is a 1978 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson with a Broadcast Journalism degree.

Greenberg said, “I am excited and honored to be joining ESPN. I look forward to using the relationships I have developed over 35 years of coaching college basketball to bring unique insights to the ESPN viewing audience.”

Pearl has worked as a college basketball commentator for Sirius XM Radio this past season after coaching the University of Tennessee from 2005-2011. While at Tennessee, Pearl led the team to 145-61 record and NCAA Tournament berths each of his six seasons there. Prior to that, Pearl coached at UW-Milwaukee (2001-2005) and Southern Indiana (1992-2001) after working as an assistant at Iowa and Stanford. Pearl is a 1982 Boston College graduate where he served as a student assistant coach and earned a degree in Business.

Pearl said, “I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to bring ESPN the same sort of knowledge, passion and intensity that I tried to have as a basketball coach. I’m anxious to get started and contribute to ESPN’s great college basketball coverage.”

Rose has been an ESPN NBA analyst, primarily for studio coverage since 2007. He will continue to provide NBA studio analysis during the Playoffs. Rose had a successful 13-year NBA career which included playing with the Indiana Pacers in the 2000 Finals. He was a consensus high school All American and team captain of the University of Michigan’s famed “Fab Five” that played for the National Championship in 1992 and 1993. Rose and his production company Three Tier Entertainment served as executive producer of ESPN’s critically acclaimed documentary about that team.

Rose said, “I’m eager to join College GameDay with Rece, Digger, Jay, and the amazing fans across the country! Calling games courtside feeling the spirit and electricity of the crowd plus hearing the gym squeak will be a treat.”