It may be only right that Josh Pastner is the man tasked with reviving a stagnant UNLV basketball program, having been formally named the new coach Tuesday.
He is, after all, somewhat responsible for a massive turning point almost a decade ago that threw the Rebels off what could have been a prosperous path.
The dominoes started to fall April 8, 2016, when Pastner decided fairly late in that offseason’s hiring cycle to leave Memphis for Georgia Tech, where he would win ACC coach of the year his first season on the job.
Memphis replaced him less than a week later with veteran Tubby Smith, who had been the coach at Texas Tech. That left an open job in Lubbock that proved to be appealing to Chris Beard, who had accepted the UNLV job 19 days earlier but was caught up in an antiquated and since-eradicated bureaucratic approval process in front of the Board of Regents.
The Rebels were then left scrambling in what proved to be a losing game of musical chairs. UNLV landed on Marvin Menzies, who faced the unenviable task of trying to piece together a roster late in the process.
He was fired after three seasons.
The fallout
UNLV has basically been swimming upstream ever since.
Now it’s Pastner’s job to reverse a trend he kind of helped start. To find a way to win big at a place where expectations are based on a time when Color Me Badd and C&C Music Factory ruled the music charts. To bring back into the fold a fanbase that seems to already be skeptical.
Seriously, there are some folks who have already added Pastner to the growing list of coaches who failed to bring UNLV back to its past glory.
And he’s coached the same number of games as Beard at the school.
Look, time will tell. And sorry to dampen whatever small bit of enthusiasm exists about this hire, but chances are Pastner is not going to replicate Jerry Tarkanian’s success at UNLV. I know, bold prediction. And just a hunch.
But it is pretty amazing to think how far the narrative has fallen around the former wunderkind of the coaching world. Pastner had been ticketed for superstardom since cutting his teeth under legendary coaches Lute Olson and John Calipari. He was named Memphis’ coach at age 31.
Now a bruised and battered old man of the industry at 47, Pastner has been to five NCAA Tournaments and was named conference coach of the year at least once at each of his two coaching stops.
He has always been known as a tireless worker (who once famously and perhaps only half-jokingly said he wouldn’t hire an assistant coach who likes to golf) and an outstanding recruiter, a skill he will need to rely on to put together a roster for next year.
That process looks very different than it did even two years ago when he was dismissed at Georgia Tech. The transfer portal is bigger than ever and NIL money is being thrown around legally and liberally.
Pastner is ready to embrace that new world of recruiting. He said on a recent podcast with Zach Gelb that while the process has grown far more transactional, it still comes down to building relationships, one of his strengths.
“I look at the portal and NIL as opportunities in a good way,” Pastner said. “And I think I’d be really good at it because it’s so much now, even more so than ever, a people business.”
Wait and see
So why the hate? Pastner hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, but he’s had more success than UNLV has the last 15 years. Is it the outrageous accusation made against him by a former friend looking for a payday who has since been convicted of a crime? It’s just not clear.
Pastner is, by all accounts, good people. It’s tough to find many folks around the college basketball world willing to say a bad word about Pastner, who has a well-documented aversion to swearing.
He’s not a yeller, either. Pastner has always subscribed to that weird theory about catching more flies with honey than vinegar, as if anyone ever wanted to catch flies for some reason. But that’s not the point.
He’s a good dude.
How many wins is that worth? Zero. Should it be a factor in the hiring process? Absolutely not.
But the way this hire has been attacked, one would think he’s both the devil incarnate and an incompetent dolt on the sideline. Neither is anywhere close to reality.
Now, if you want to hold against him the fact he kept Beard from ever coaching a game at UNLV? By all means, hate away.
Contact Adam Hill at [email protected]. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
