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Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 3, 2001
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tulsa's Buzz Peterson was the clear favorite as Tennessee inched closer to hiring a coach.
ESPN.com reported Monday that Peterson has accepted the job and will be introduced during a news conference today, but university president J. Wade Gilley wouldn't say whether athletic director Doug Dickey had offered Peterson the job.
Gilley said he expects an announcement Wednesday. Dickey, who was in Knoxville on Monday and didn't expect to go out of town again, was working on "procedural things," but wouldn't elaborate.
Peterson did not return calls.
Hired at Tulsa a year ago from Appalachian State, Peterson surfaced as a candidate almost immediately after Jerry Green resigned March 20. Tennessee had to wait to formally interview Peterson until his team was finished playing in the NIT, which it won last week.
If Peterson is hired, he likely would get a pay raise of at least $250,000 a year. It has been reported that Peterson makes about $400,000 annually, but terms of his five-year contract and a buyout clause are not public because Tulsa is a private university. Dickey has said the coach would not be paid more than football coach Phillip Fulmer, who makes about $1.3-million.
Kentucky coach Tubby Smith is expected to decide soon if he will accept a blockbuster offer from South Carolina, the State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., reported. The offer is believed to be between $1.5-million and $1.8-million.
Smith, 49, won a national championship at Kentucky in 1998, and the team he returns next season is expected to be a title contender.
South Carolina athletics director Mike McGee said Sunday he had no comment on the search, other than to say, "Tubby who?" He talked to Kentucky athletics director Larry Ivy last week to request permission to talk to Smith, according to the school's spokesman, Brooks Downing.
USC's offer to Smith apparently is the talk of the coaches at the Final Four in Minneapolis. The Star-Tribune reported the Kentucky coach "is on the verge of accepting a contract calling for $2-million per season to become the basketball coach at South Carolina."
McGee spent the weekend in Minneapolis interviewing other candidates: Tulsa's Peterson and Alabama's Mark Gottfried.