On Pastner and other random topics
Posted by Dan Wolken
No official word today on the Josh Pastner situation. The assistant’s job at Memphis is his if he wants it, but this obviously going to be a very emotional decision for him. Pastner has been involved in the Arizona program as a player and an assistant since he was a teenager, and leaving Tucson won’t be easy. Still, I have received no indications today that Pastner won’t take the job. Barring something unforseen, Pastner will be on the Memphis staff officially in the very near future. I expect a decision as early as Thursday.
– The Memphis basketball team wasn’t impacted by the release of the Academic Progress Ratings by the NCAA yesterday. Memphis was above the 925 threshold, as John Calipari predicted a year ago when the initial ratings came out. That’s a very significant thing for Memphis, given the academic mess Calipari inherited.
– I noticed today that Jeremiah Rivers is transferring from Georgetown. Could Memphis be in the mix for Rivers? I doubt it; I’m not sure Rivers is an upgrade from the kind of players Memphis would be recruiting for 2009. On the other hand, Calipari is pretty good friends with his father, Celtics coach Doc Rivers. And I’ve heard Doc Rivers has a younger son who is absolutely off the charts good.
– Talked to an NBA scout today who told me he sees no way that Chris Douglas-Roberts slips beyond the 20th overall pick. He thinks CDR could go as high as 10th or 11th. Still a long way until the NBA Draft, however, on June 26.
– The same scout told me he didn’t see Robert Dozier or Antonio Anderson as draftable at this point. Another interesting point on the Memphis players was on Joey Dorsey. The team this scout works for doesn’t have Dorsey on the board. At all. Unfortunately for Joey, his reputation off the court precedes him into the NBA. My sense is that a handful of teams, and possibly as many as 10, simply won’t consider drafting Dorsey period. At Memphis, he was better than his problems. In the NBA? Not so much.
– Speaking of players being better than their problems, that apparently wasn’t the case for Ramar Smith and Duke Crews at Tennessee, who were tossed out by Bruce Pearl recently. How desperate are the Vols for a point guard in the wake of Smith’s departure? They got a committment today from Bobby Maze, the former Oklahoma point guard who spent last year at the junior college level. Maze was committed to Maryland, but the Terps released him from that committment when they got one instead from Tyree Evans. What does it say about Maze that Maryland instead took Evans, who just in the last two years has been charged with felony possession of marijuana and pleaded guilty to an assault misdemeanor after being accused of statutory rape while in prep school? Talk about trading one headache for another.
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