Knoxville ? With Buzz Peterson’s future at Tennessee now decided, the coach fired on Monday, his predecessor recently questioned whether there was a deep enough commitment to men’s basketball at Tennessee.

Jerry Green, forced out following the 2001 season despite orchestrating the most successful four-year run in the history of the program, said he was pulling for the retention of Peterson.

But Green wasn’t surprised to see Peterson twisting in the wind thanks to what Green, a former Kansas University assistant, says is an unhealthy climate at Tennessee when it comes to men’s basketball.

“There’s enough money to get it done,” Green said. “There’s enough seats in the arena to get it done, and there’s enough talent around the state to get it done.

“The question is: Does the University of Tennessee community — and I include in that the administration, the boosters, the people who write for the newspapers and answer the phones on the talk shows — actually want a third sport that’s world class?

“You’ve got two huge programs there that people appear to love and enjoy in the football team and Lady Vols basketball team. I just question if the campus community really, really wants a third program to be at the top level. From my experience there and some of the decisions that have been made, I’m not sure in my own mind that it does.”

Green, now living in Topsail Island, N.C., was 89-36 in four years at Tennessee and led the Vols to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

To this day, he can’t get over the fact he was pushed out despite the Vols averaging 22.3 wins during his tenure.

“I’ve never been through anything in my life like those four years at Tennessee,” said Green, who received a $1.1 million buyout.

“It’s probably as screwed up a situation, with what we did and the number of wins we had, as any I’ve ever heard of.”

Green pointed out that UT was on its third president since he was shown the door. J. Wade Gilley was the UT president who presided over Green’s ouster. Gilley and his successor, John Shumaker, both left the university amid scandals.

“You wonder about the people doing the hiring and making the decisions,” Green said. “I don’t know how good they were for the university and especially for the men’s basketball program.

“It was such an unusual time. They brought in a president (Gilley), who got fired for having an extramarital affair. I can’t even think of the guy’s name now. But when you get in a new president like that who wants to shine and go out and hire his own guy, the athletic director is going to listen to him intently.”

Green, never embraced by the fans, didn’t take kindly to criticism. He even told fans on the UT-sponsored radio program to “go to the Kmart” if they didn’t want to come to games.

“I never was sure what the administration wanted, what the campus community wanted,” Green said.

Green said he will collect his final $210,000 payment from Tennessee in January.

“I might not be winning as many games as I did back then, but I still get my check from them the first day of every year.”