FILE - In this March 28, 2014, file photo, Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin directs his team during the second half of an NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal college basketball tournament game against Michigan in Indianapolis. Cal announced the hiring of Tennessee's Martin Tuesday, April 15, 2014. He replaces Mike Montgomery, who retired last month after six seasons in Berkeley. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

It is time to test the Tennessee River water that flows past Knoxville.

Test it for toxic levels of dysfunction.

There is something in the water, or the soil – or, most likely, the people – at the University of Tennessee that has turned the athletic department into a transient, turmoil-ridden place. Basketball coach Cuonzo Martin’s departure Tuesday for California is just the latest huh? moment for a school that has been buffeted by them in recent years.

Martin’s successor will be the third Tennessee hoops coach since 2011. Butch Jones is the fourth football coach since 2008. Dave Hart is the second athletic director in the last three years.

Absolutely nothing is rock solid on Rocky Top these days. It is high time for a reality check.

Tennessee football has had five losing seasons in the past six years – and the one winning season was 7-6. It was authored by Lane Kiffin, who immediately fled for USC after that season. The fans who couldn’t wait to get rid of Phil Fulmer now look back wistfully at those halcyon days, when the Volunteers could do things like beat Vanderbilt and occasionally even compete with Florida and Alabama.

As the football program slipped, and then finally crumbled under massive mistake hire Derek Dooley, basketball became the Big Orange rally point. Bruce Pearl reinvigorated the program, winning games and earning hero status by being an unabashed showman. He took the Volunteers to the Sweet 16 for only the second time in school history, in 2008, and then to their first Elite Eight two years later.

And then came the barbecue. And the lying to the NCAA. And Pearl’s firing.

In came Cuonzo Martin, a Gene Keady guy who is cut from a different cloth than Pearl – less personality, more rules compliance. After a honeymoon that barely lasted long enough to carry the bride across the threshold, the complaining from the fans commenced.

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They said Martin was squandering the talent Pearl left him. They said he wasn’t recruiting enough talent to win when Pearl’s players were gone. They said he couldn’t coach. They said his teams were boring. They went so far as to circulate an online petition this season urging the school to fire Martin and rehire Pearl, who left amid NCAA disgrace.

Martin’s record in three seasons: 63-41 overall, 32-20 in Southeastern Conference play. Martin’s winning percentages: .606 overall, .615 in SEC games. The highlight was this year’s run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed – a run aided by facing No. 14 Mercer in the round of 32, and nearly ended in the play-in round before an overtime escape against Iowa.

Pearl’s record his last three seasons: 68-37 overall, 29-19 in SEC play. Pearl’s winning percentages: .648 overall, .604 in SEC games. The highlight of those final three years was that run to the Elite Eight as a No. 6 seed – a run also aided by facing a No. 14 seed in the round of 32 (in this case Ohio) and a narrow round-of-64 escape over San Diego State.

So there is not a lot of difference there, but apparently it was a world of difference to the fans. Attendance during Pearl’s final three seasons averaged 18,252. Attendance in Martin’s three seasons averaged 16,218, bottoming out at 15,475 fans per home game this year. (A number admittedly skewed downward by the fact that Tennessee did not host Kentucky for the first time in decades – thank you, conference expansion.)

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