Bleacher Report - The Josh Pastner Scouting Report, Volume Two

The Josh Pastner Scouting Report, Volume Two
Bleacher Report
by Dave Stanley (Contributor)

"Tireless Recruiter."

"Superior work ethic."

Tim Floyd? Mike Anderson?

Negative. Try Josh Pastner.

Talk about your "wow!" hire, indeed. It's just that it's on the other end of the spectrum; more of a panicked "OMG!" than a confident "LOL."

It very well could be that "who" is the new "wow."

However, before the Tiger faithful become to disenfranchised with the one worded quotations of sophomoric sports writers, it would fare them well to take a more in depth look at this most intriguing of hires.

There's a whole new world of pleasant pro's and conspicuous cons.

Recruiting

In the first 24 hours of his hiring alone, this element of Pastner's nascent arsenal has already been beaten into the ground. The ink has yet to dry on the man's contract and already folks are jaded.

But is he a one-trick pony? Or is it merely the tip of the talented ice burg?

The dossier on him would suggest the former. At the tender young age of 13, he had already written and published the Josh Pastner Scouting Report, a comprehensive guide to his native Houston's high school basketball scene.

Roughly four years earlier, he already knew he wanted to be a coach.

His father, Hal, remains an area legend in Houston, having been a successful coach and promoter. He founded Vision Sports, the organization that conducts AAU events across the country.

Having viable inroads in the AAU circuit are crucial to successful NCAA basketball recruiting. Big names and flashy experience aren't everything, which is why it could be argued that Memphis chose a young, up-and-comer as opposed to an NBA personality with free time on his hands (see: Reggie Theus).

With only one week to go until the national signing period commences, his work is cut out for him. However, it is significant that it was Pastner, not John Calipari, who was the key cog in the recruiting of DeMarcus Cousins and Xavier Henry.

In fact, Pastner was on the way out of town to Kentucky—to be Calipari's lead recruiter, no less—when he got the call from Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson.

"When an opportunity is given to you, you jump on it," he said at his introductory press conference Tuesday.

The fact that the remaining Tiger players seem to be uniting behind their new coach is also encouraging.

"We ain't going nowhere," said freshman Wesley Witherspoon, from the back of the room.

The Proverbial "Tremendous Upside"

Given his already impressive coaching tree pedigree—when Hall of Famer Lute Olson digs you, you're doing OK--the flattering comparisons are being made aplenty.

From Oklahoma's hiring of Jeff Capel to Kansas' choosing Roy Williams, the kid certainly is in good company.

Consider the similarities:

They all were hired in lieu of "the big name."

They all were expected to keep their respective programs rolling, in spite of the hard times, be it the loss of the previous coaches blue chip recruits (Capel, Pastner) or NCAA probation (Williams).

And they all took on programs where losing is unacceptable. Granted, being a rising star is not a bad place to be. But to be placed in a situation with virtually no allowance for a learning curve nor margin of error almost proves to be insurmountable.

Which is why for every Roy Williams, there are 50 Tic Prices and Matt Dohertys. It all depends on if your athletic director and fan base have a patient, rebuilding mentality or a "win now!" one.

Back to the Future?

Being a sports fan in this day and age of non loyalty is not that different from dating, really.

Your heart gets crushed by who you thought was your life partner. Yet oddly enough, you've found hope in the most unlikely of places. Yet before you've sprayed that first bit of cologne or perfume before your first date, you and your jaded self are already shooting down the positives.

"They just want sex," you might say, downplaying your own, genuine suitability.

Or, "She's probably using me for a rebound situation until she can go after my fireman acquaintance, Blake."

And so on. Next thing you know, you've already had your first fight before you have so much as had a legitimate conversation.

In many pessimistic Memphis fan circles, there is such an analogous vibe.

After one "rah!rah!," feel-good press conference, folks around water coolers, message boards and sports bars all over are no doubt dissecting the "what ifs" of a successful Pastner tenure.

You can almost hear it now:

"You know as soon as Arizona's (new coach Sean) Miller leaves, he's gonna bolt right back for the Wildcats."

"Like Kentucky, we'll just be a team waiting to be bought by those OTHER Wildcats, Arizona."

"If we are good, it will only be because he inherited Cal's team. He'll be another Bill Callahan!"

And thus, we assume we will find ourselves in the same situation that we were in for the past ten, tumultuous days.

Brought up, only to be let down.

Yet after viewing today's press conference, along with all the facts, one gets the feeling that Pastner wasn't merely dropping ear-pleasing sound bites. He lent a genuine air of credibility and optimism.

Of course, having your returning players vouch for you at the back of the room is also a good start.

Tiger fans, the doorbell is ringing.

Your success story awaits.

A Few Thoughts on Pastner to Memphis

A Few Thoughts on Pastner to Memphis
www.arizonadesertstorm.com
by dcrockett17 on Apr 9, 2009 8:54 PM PDT

I'll start by saying that I wish Josh the absolute best. I really hope he tears it up at Memphis. I like him, and I think he has the makings of an excellent coach. However, I can't help the nagging feeling that Josh is being set up for failure.

Pastner found himself on Lute Olsen's staff shortly after his playing career, which began as a walk-on. He hardly embarrassed himself. Under his watch Arizona continued to get and develop its fair share of NBA-quality talent (e.g., Bayless, Hill, Budinger). Yet, I think it's fair to say that there was a considerable dropoff in the quality of Arizona's secondary stars and role players from prior seasons.

Pastner took the program's recruiting away from its historical roots in the West, particularly Southern California and the Northwest, to emphasize recruiting in Texas. One critique of Texas high school hoops talent is that it's fantastic at the top but weak at the next tier. I think that critique was borne out under Pastner's watch. Arizona remained reasonably competitive for top level talent nationwide, but became steadily weaker at the next level of talent. Secondary stars and role players like Salim Stoudemire, Richard Anderson, and Channing Frye were not considered "prized" recruits when they got to campus. (I won't even count Gilbert Arenas as the ultimate sleeper recruit.) By comparison, Nic Wise, Fendi Onobun, and Juwan McClellan, with all due respect, are a much weaker group.

Okay, so if a guy is pulling in the likes of Bayless and Budinger why does this other stuff matter? On the one hand it's not hard to identify top talent. Hell, McDonalds does that for you. You just hope you can sell them on your program. The real mark of a coach's eye for talent is in the secondary and role players he recruits. That's where coaches have a good bit of discretion. Those are the guys you hope come in unheralded and turn themselves into real players. Where Pastner has had the most discretion, his success has been a mixed bag.

As for Josh's strategizing and game management, we just don't know. There is every reason to believe the guy is bright, and of course he has learned under two very good coaches. So, I am certainly willing to give Pastner the benefit of the doubt. But, there is legitimate doubt.

So what you have at Memphis is a potentially combustible mix of inexperience, a roster that has gone from talent-rich to talent-depleted overnight, the pressure of following a legend, a contract that probably quadrupled his highest previous salary, and fans that are used to winning. Consider that the last time Memphis lost a conference game Hillary Clinton was the shoe-in Democratic nominee for president. Add all that up and the potential is high for things to go very, very wrong in an awful hurry.

Why would Memphis do this? Obviously, they must believe in Josh. No matter how cynical one might want to be about these matters no university--not even the Ivys--has $4 million to just piss away. Still, I'm surprised that Memphis didn't look for a young coach at a low major, or even a more experienced assistant. I have my suspicions about whether part of the AD's motivation was to keep at least some recruits from bolting the program. If true, that's not good for Josh long-term. If the bottom falls out for Memphis, and it may, those recruits won't be able to save his job.

I hope Josh can coach his way out of the circumstances, but this is a tough deal even for a veteran coach. The problem I foresee for Josh is that any number of things that really aren't his fault could go wrong and things might not work out. Unfortunately, he won't have much of a record to fall back on.

Good luck Josh. You're going to need it.

Memphis Flyer - Delivered from Calipari; Memphis' loss is, in fact, Memphis' gain, as an era comes to an end

Delivered from Calipari
Memphis' loss is, in fact, Memphis' gain, as an era comes to an end.
by Chris Herrington

I got a few odd looks around the office last Tuesday. Co-workers asked what I thought about the prospect of John Calipari leaving his coaching post at the University of Memphis, and I replied with some variation on "good riddance." It was not, at the time, a common response.

To most, the Calipari era will be remembered for a 252-69 win-loss record and six NCAA tournament appearances, including two Elite Eights and one run to the national title game. Maybe it'll be remembered for an NIT championship and — yes, this happened — an NIT championship parade.

But there's another story about the Calipari era, one that most Tiger fans have tried to ignore. This story is about the presence of William Wesley, aka "Worldwide Wes," the notorious operator who played a murky role in the procurement of Tiger stars Dajuan Wagner, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Derrick Rose, and Tyreke Evans. This story is about diploma factories, such as Laurinberg Prep, which provided the foundation for the team's recent string of deep tournament runs. It's about package deals, the most recent of which had Calipari hiring freshman Evans' personal trainer as an "administrative assistant" for $4,500 a month, according to ESPN's Outside the Lines.

It's a story of "student-athletes" who were more often treated like the temporary contract workers a broken system has turned too many of them into: Jeremy Hunt welcomed back from a "permanent" suspension; recruit Keena Young dismissed because his high school teammate (Kendrick Perkins) had the temerity to back out of a scholarship commitment and turn pro. It's the story of a string of behavioral and legal problems so lengthy it would be folly to try to list them here. And it's the story of a torrent of B.S. and outright lies from the mouth of "Coach Cal" himself — a logorrheic maelstrom that was insulting when it wasn't hysterical.

Calipari revealed himself with his messy, but inevitable, departure, potentially napalming the program he'd built up and, by most reliable accounts, lying about it. Calipari claimed he was encouraging Memphis recruits to stay put, but reporters more trustworthy than Calipari have suggested that he in fact delayed his signing with Kentucky for the purpose of legally persuading those recruits to follow him north. The University of Memphis student newspaper, The Daily Helmsman, proclaimed Calipari "dead to Memphis," capturing the tone of once worshipful fans whose current sense of betrayal is not entirely justified.

Why rehash the Calipari era now? Because the future of University of Memphis basketball will be driven, in part, by how Memphians perceive the recent past.

To most fans, the success of the Calipari era was worth the baggage. People don't like to remember that the University of Massachusetts' one Final Four run under Calipari was later stricken from the books because of NCAA violations. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to the University of Memphis. But if it doesn't, I suspect it will only be because Calipari became more sophisticated about gaming the system.

Chasing Calipari-style success in the hiring of his successor will likely result in a program that duplicates Calipari's shadiness more than his skill — and suffers more than losing games in the process. The program may have dodged this bullet by failing to hire Baylor coach Scott Drew, who profiles as a Calipari mini-me. It remains to be seen which direction newly hired recruiting specialist Josh Pastner will take the program.

Instead, Calipari's departure should be seen as an opportunity to reshape Tiger basketball. With such a fertile recruiting base, excellent facilities, strong community and college support, and, frankly, such a weak conference, Tiger basketball can function at a high level even without living as fully in the gray area as it did under Calipari's rule.

A post-Calipari era might look like this: a more likable coach running a somewhat cleaner program in a business that's now almost universally sketchy; a stronger contingent of the homegrown and area recruits for whom Memphians love to root; a return to the regional rivalry games that fans enjoy but that Calipari had brainwashed the Tiger faithful into thinking the university shouldn't schedule; fewer one-and-done rent-a-stars.

A program like this — one reminiscent of Tiger basketball in the Larry Finch years — would probably mean having a Top 25 team that makes an occasional tournament run rather than a Top 5 team that makes an annual tournament run. But fans wouldn't have to play the see-no-evil/hear-no-evil game quite as much. I think that trade-off would be well worth it. Sadly, I suspect most Tiger fans — now accustomed to the propped-up heights of the Calipari years — would disagree.

Chris Herrington is the Flyer's music/film editor and also writes "Beyond the Arc," an online blog about the Memphis Grizzlies.

Arizona Daily Star - Greg Hansen : Miller, Pastner quite different but so similar

Greg Hansen : Miller, Pastner quite different but so similar
Opinion by Greg Hansen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona

During Xavier's run to the Sweet 16 last month, the Cincinnati Enquirer described Musketeer coach Sean Miller as "the man behind the scowl."

It didn't suggest that he was mean-spirited, but rather intense in a good way. "He's an extremist," his brother, Ohio State assistant coach Archie Miller, told the Enquirer.

A few days ago, at the press conference introducing Josh Pastner as Memphis' basketball coach, the former Wildcat assistant used the term "rockin' and rollin'" three times. Maybe more. I lost count. Since Pastner arrived in Tucson in 1997, he has been scowl-free. He's a smiler.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. He's 31. Those words and his mannerisms link him to a generation more familiar with happy than sad.

"Age is overrated," Pastner said at his press conference.

By comparison, Miller, 40, who grew up in a steelworker town, Ellwood City, Pa., spoke in serious tones about his "system" during an all-business news conference at McKale Center.

Miller coaches. He has a system. He has won 120 games.

Pastner recruits. He has won no games. His system is in the to-be-determined stage.
And yet there is no one "right way" to coach at the highest level of college basketball. Both men begin their new assignments 0-0. It will be fascinating to follow their journey.

Miller knows how to deal with the refs and the media. He has spent five years as a buck-stops-here disciplinarian.

Pastner is about to be introduced to those often unkind variables. You ask yourself: how will he handle a 2 a.m., phone call from the constables when one of his Memphis Tigers invariably runs afoul of the law? How will he spin it? Is he a zero-tolerance guy? Or is he a long-leash guy?

Can he be tough? At Arizona, he was a gee-whiz guy, a good cop to Lute Olson's bad cop.

Miller and Pastner are different. They are the same. Both were basketball prodigies, destined to be coaches by the time they were 15. Their paths did not cross at Arizona, but they will forever be linked because of their association with the UA and the fact they were hired — Miller at Arizona, Pastner at Memphis — within 24 hours of one another.

I ask: Which would you hire?

A few days before Miller was introduced at McKale, as an unspoken tension gripped Tucson, I convened an unofficial screening committee at the UA Student Union.
I asked: Would you hire Pastner to coach the Wildcats? Is he ready?

Former Pac-10 athletic directors Mike Lude of Washington, Joe Kearney of Arizona State and Norv Richey of Oregon gathered to attend the Southern Arizona chapter of the College Football Hall of Fame banquet.

"I've never believed in OJT," said Lude.

OJT?

"On-the-job training," he said. "Let the other guy take that risk. I want someone who experienced all of the issues a head coach encounters: the pressure to win, the pressure to deal with the public and the administration, and all of the other daily variables, such as recruiting, game strategy and being a leader."
Kearney agreed.

"You don't want to be surprised," he said. "There's too much at stake. Athletic departments today are huge corporations."

I asked if it was necessary to hire someone with geographical ties to the Pac-10.
"I hired Montana's Jud Heathcote when I was at Michigan State," said Kearney. "Before that, he spent about 20 years in Spokane and at Washington State. It took him all of three years to win the national championship in the foreign territory of Michigan. Jud knew how to coach; it didn't matter where he was."
Lude nodded.

"When I got to Washington, Don James was our football coach. He was from Kent State. He had gone to school in Florida and coached in Michigan and Colorado. Geography didn't matter. He went to the Rose Bowl in his third season at Washington."
So I don't think it's going to matter a whit that Sean Miller has never played or coached a basketball game in the greater Los Angeles area, which is Arizona's most important recruiting turf.

As first-year UA women's basketball coach Niya Butts, a Georgian by way of Tennessee and Kentucky told me: "The first time I went recruiting in L.A., I made sure my rental car had a navigation system. I found my way."

I suspect both Miller and Pastner will find their way, too. One is a beginner, the other is at the beginning of a new mission.

One is the man behind the scowl. One is the man behind the smile.

I'm betting that it works both ways.

Contact Greg Hansen at 573-4362 or ghansen@azstarnet.com.

Mavs Jason Terry on Coach Josh Pastner...

Posted by Chris Vernon (Fox 730 AM Memphis)

“All the former U of A guys, he would get 800 thumbs up from us. I’ve talked to A.J. Bramlett, Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson and Luke Walton about this and they all know what Josh has meant to that program all these years,” Terry told GoAZCats.com last week before the school hired Xavier’s Sean Miller. “Abdul Gaddy would have stayed if Josh or Lute Olson was on the staff last year. As far as recruiting, Josh Pastner is your guy, he’s the one who is going to make it happen, and he has so many connections across the south, throughout the whole west coast, and all across the country. He should be our coach.”

Nice endorsement.

The Bleacher Report - Pouncing on Pastner: How the Memphis Tigers Got Their Guy

Pouncing on Pastner: How the Memphis Tigers Got Their Guy

By John Martin, The Bleacher Report

After John Calipari fled the good ol' Memphis Tigers program, I was compelled to do a few emergency tests.

I checked my pulse.

Promptly at 4:30, I drove around Memphis.

I drove to the University of Memphis.

After completing these three tasks, I finalized a prognosis:

Contrary to my belief, I was still pulsating.

Memphis traffic was still insanely relentless, and yes, the majority of Memphis drivers are still stupid.

The last test's results really shocked me.

The doors were NOT chained shut, the windows were NOT boarded up, and—you won't believe this one—students still roamed around campus.

The University of Memphis was still up and running.

My God, can it be? Is life in Memphis really going on? Is the entire Memphis community not secluded in underground vaults bracing for the imminent apocalypse?

Impossible!

Why, Calipari was the lone man who could keep this city and basketball program relevant! He couldn't leave!

The Memphis media was making sure of it. They sent heavy-duty, armed choppers to hover around his palace. The fans and news were firmly positioned in front of his home, strapped with AK-47s and grenade launchers.

If we couldn't have him, nobody could; Calipari is OUR coach!

(No, the fans didn't have AKs or grenade launchers. There really was a chopper hovering over his home, though. You'd think the guy was a fugitive the way his every move was being tracked.)

Then, in true Calipari fashion, he slithered by the media.

Forgive the snake reference, but Kentucky fans, this is your guy.

With not so much as a word, Josh Pastner and Orlando Antigua led the caravan of vehicles. Calipari was ducking down in the middle of this pack.

Way to address the fans, coach!

The saga was over. The stand-off was done. Calipari took the job at Kentucky, and can you really blame him? But that's not the issue anymore. He's gone. And for a very, very long week, it felt that our program was going with him.

Alan Graf, a huge booster of the Tiger program and VP of FedEx, made the statement (which doesn't look too inaccurate now, although it did for a second) that we were going to make a "WOW" hire.

Several names were thrown into the mix. More than most, I believe, were fabricated and were pure conjecture. As unfair as it may have been, the media was making Memphis look like a desperate little high school girl who just lost her jock boyfriend and was willing to go with anyone to her senior prom.

We stooped as low as to begin CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS with the infamously accredited Scott Drew.

I'm a firm believer that Geoff Calkins is the sole reason that he was not introduced as our head coach yesterday. Thank you, Geoff. Seriously. The guy gets a lot of flack for his articles, but the Scott Drew article he wrote saved this program.

Leonard Hamilton was thrown out there. Consequently, he signed a five-year extension with Florida State. Nobody wanted him here, anyway. By the time he would've gotten down here, he would've been drawing social security.

It began to seem as if coaches were using the University of Memphis as leverage to lure more money out of their own programs. It looked bleaked for these Tigers.
Numerous sources were reporting that the Memphis brass was going to hold open auditions at the Larry Finch Center.

However, as they were preparing the concessions table for the auditions, R.C. Johnson had an idea. And if you're a Memphis fan, you know that when our A.D. has an idea, it's probably a good one.

"Hey, Alan, instead of this whole audition thing, why don't we just call that Pastner kid and see if he's interested? We don't have to shake the whole foundation, you know. He's never coached a day in his life, but something's telling me he's worth a shot."

"R.C, he just started shaving yesterday! He is cute, though."

And that was it. That was the encounter between Alan Graf and R.C. Johnson that set the stage for our new head coach, Joshua Pastner.

The guy was literally packing his bags for Kentucky. He had turned in his vehicle Memphis provided him.

And his phone rang.

Who would've thought that it would've been R.C. Johnson on the other line, not wishing him a safe flight to Kentucky, but welcoming him into the Memphis program once again ... just this time, with a promotion?

Not Josh. Not me. Not most of the Memphis fans.

But I think this move saved the Memphis Tigers. I think this moved saved the city. I think this move saved R.C. Johnson's job.

During his press conference yesterday, I noticed a few things:

He's already coining his signature phrases. I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot of the "86,400 seconds in a day" and "Five P's" allusions in the coming years.

He's fiery. He wants to stay at the level that the Tigers have inhabited the last five years. And, with the guy's background (which includes two (actually it is just one, but hey, make the guy seem like he walks on water, ed.) national championships at Arizona, one coaching AAU ball, and the other a global championship coaching AAU ball) how can you not believe the guy will continue where Cal left off?

Winning is all this guy knows.

He's got the support of our current players. He's going to get some recruits in here.

And last but not least, I noticed that the Memphis Tigers aren't going anywhere. It may take two or three years, but they're not going anywhere.

Speculate all you want, but the guy is smart, too. He got his degree in two-and-a-half years. Einstein didn't even do that!

Then again, Einstein didn't ever get to the Final Four.

Here's hoping that Josh Pastner, new head coach of the Memphis Tigers, can.

Current Baylor Assistant Jerome Tang Interviewing for Spot on Pastner's Staff

Jerome Tang Interviews for Spot on Pastner’s Staff
Posted by MemphisRoar On April - 8 - 2009

Jerome Tang, currently an assistant coach at Baylor University, has been on campus at the University of Memphis all day today to interview for a spot on new head coach Josh Pastner’s staff. Including a tour of the Athletic Office Building and the Larry Finch practice facilities, Pastner and Tang spent pretty much the whole day together. Tang just completed his sixth season at Baylor. Prior to his position on the Bears’ staff, Tang was the head coach of Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, TX for ten years. We are currently trying to track down more information on Jerome Tang’s visit to the Bluff City.

Here’s a recent write-up on Tang from College Insider’s Jason Belzer:

Young Guns: 3 Top Under-the-Radar College Assistants

March 12, 2009

Jerome Tang, Assistant Coach - Baylor University

Although Scott Drew seems to have garnered most of the attention when it comes to the amazing turn around that has occurred at Baylor University, a school whose basketball program was once so deep in turmoil that many thought they would never win another game, one cannot dismiss the contributions of Drew’s assistant coaches, most notably Jerome Tang. Tang has been apart of the Baylor staff for six years, joining Drew after serving as one of the top high school coaches in the country at Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, Texas. A master developer of talent, Tang’s final two classes at Heritage included six D-1 ball players; Cedrick Hensley (Houston), Elijah Miller (Houston), Marlon Pompey (Texas A&M), Lamar Hurd (Oregon State), Tim Mayes (Richmond) and Tyler Jones (St. John’s).

More than just a great coach, Jerome has been instrumental in recruiting some of the best players to ever come to Baylor. Working hand in hand with assistants Matt Driscoll and Mark Morefield, Tang was a key player in bringing in forwards Quincy Acy and Anthony Jones, as well as guards Desmond Carter and LaceDarius Dunn and center Josh Lomers. Tang’s best work may still be ahead of him, as Baylor has already received a verbal from the nations #5 ranked Power Forward Perry Jones for its 2010 class. There is little doubt that with Jerome Tang on staff, Baylor will continue to its rise from the ashes to the top of the Big XII standings and beyond.

Robert Dozier Playing in Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (Day One Wrap Up)

2009 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament: Day 1
By Borko_Popic, NBADraft.net
Thu, 04/09/2009 - 2:01am


The Pre-Draft Season has officially kicked off with the start of the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. With the changes made to the Pre-Draft Camp format as well as the tough economic times, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding this draft. As a result there is much on the line for these seniors because it may be their last chance to show their game in front of scouts and the likes.
Looking at the rosters from today and comparing them to those released last week, some of the bigger names are missing. The biggest being Sam Young (he is the only one that is likely to end up in the 1st round). The other include AJ Price, Jeff Adrien, Jeff Pendergraph, Dominic James and Robert Dozier. Some of these guys went deep into the tournament, so fatigue could be a factor, for others they may feel that they have shown enough as of late that they shouldn’t risk hurting their stock at PIT. With all that said, it will definitely be interesting to see in what way and how much this choice affects them.

Other guys that never committed to coming but possibly should have considered it: Toney Douglas, Lester Hudson, Jerel McNeal, Josh Heytvelt, and Jeremy Pargo.

Game 1

Sales System LTD 70 – K&D Round’s Landscaping 63

Traditionally the first game has always been an ugly one and tonight proved to be no different. Neither team was able to find their rhythm and they combined to shoot an abysmal 35% from the field. K&D led by 11 at half, but shooting 9-39 in the second half from the field allowed Sales System to come back and win the game.

Courtney Fells (22 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 4/5 3FG)




Courtney Fells


In a very poorly played game, Fells was one of the few bright spots. He got his rhythm going early and he drained a variety of shots all night. He was able to hit spot ups, dribble jumpers, as well as shots coming off screens. His stroke is very smooth, he gets good elevation and his release is high, making it very difficult to contest. Being in a comfort zone, he looked very poised, not forcing much (unlike almost everyone else), he was able to not only get his own shot, but he found open teammates. He showed his range finishing 4 for 5 from beyond the NBA 3, even converting on a couple with a hand in his face. Physically he is skinny and needs to put on more muscle; he is listed at 6-6 but may be slightly shorter, although his nice wingspan makes up for it. Continuing to show he can make shots from the outside as well as get to the hoop will be the key for Fells in the next few days.

Marcus Cousin (9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks)

Playing only 22 minutes, Cousin was able to show some very intriguing things. He might be close to 6’11 and he has a nicely defined body to go with it. Putting his athleticism and aggressiveness on display, he made some energy plays in the paint, including a couple putbacks. Most impressive was his shooting touch from about 15 feet where he knocked down two spot jumpers. He is still very raw and he did not show much in terms of his back to the basket repertoire, however, with more playing time he may emerge as one of the more intriguing big men this week.

Diamon Simpson (15 points, 15 rebounds, 4 steals)

Simpson is the type of player that seems to thrive in this kind of setting. He does not need many touches or plays called for him to be effective. As an energy player who has a good feel for the game, he finds himself in the right spots to make plays. His length and anticipation give him a great advantage on the offensive glass and in the passing lanes. While his stat line is definitely impressive, he did not show much in terms of NBA potential. He does not have a clear position, his outside shot is very questionable and he is limited off the dribble. He style is very similar to Mark Tyndale and Kyle Hines, both of whom had very good camps last year, but never heard their names called.

Paul Delaney (18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists)

He came out gunning and was not shy about putting up shots, but what separated him is the fact that he did most of his work going to the basket. He was easily one of the more aggressive players, which is seen by his 10 FT attempts. Even though his handle is kind of shaky, he was still able to get into the lane consistently. With all that said, as a prospect he leaves much to be desired. His release is very inconsistent because of an awkward hitch. He is essentially a 6’2 SG, with subpar handles, and a very questionable shot.

Notes: Stefon Jackson finished the night 2-10 from the field and looked very nervous. He continuously forced his midrange pull up, and although it looks very smooth, it simply was not there for him. Same can be said for Jimmy Baron and Kyle McLarney, who combined for 5 for 26 from the field (4/19 from 3pt).

Game 2

Portsmouth Partnership 90 – Tidewater Sealants 80

The 2nd game was a bit better played, but not because of more ball movement, rather the guys just shot the ball more consistently. Portsmouth Partnership took a one point lead at half and they were able to stretch it to ten and never looked back.




AD Vassallo


AD Vassallo (21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3/6 3FG)

He displayed his smooth jumpshot in a variety of ways: pull ups off screens and spot ups. Most impressive was his ability to get into the lane. Using effective shot fakes, he was able to get defenders off balance before going by them. Although he converted on a high clip of his drives, the finishes leave a lot to be desired. He is not very athletic, and he finesses the ball in with little flip shots rather than taking it strong. All in all, he had the best performance of the night- he did not force too much and his team ended up winning the game, earning him the NBADraft.net Player of the Day.

Josh Akognon (16 points, 6 assists, 4/5 3FG)

Akognon had a performance that is very much in line with what has become the norm for him. His outside shot was simply on point, hitting long range bombs with people in his face. His open court speed was unmatched, and he was also able to use his quickness to turn the corner and get to the hoop. His handles are very solid and he uses a variety of hesitation and crossover moves to get by defenses. In the half court he was able to make some nice reads in the pick and roll and find open teammates either on the roll or on the weakside. However, in between all of these bright spots, comes the out-of-control and shoot-first mentality that we have seen from him all season. He tends to over-dribble and he also likes to look for his shot too frequently, rather than setting up teammates. In transition he looks to make the spectacular player rather than the right one. For a player his size he will need to become a more controlled lead guard, who is dedicated to setting up his teammates consistently.

DeMarre Carroll (18 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks)

He was very active around the basket and played with high energy on both ends of the floor. His decent touch was on display as he hit a few spot ups and fadeaways, he was also able to put the ball on the deck and get by his defender. He will need to show more of his scoring repertoire, especially with his back to the basket if he is to boost his stock.

Micah Downs (8 points, 5 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2/3 3FG)

Not a very dominating performance, but Downs was able to show his great feel for the game on both ends of the floor. He has a great sense of where the ball is going, and he anticipates extremely well on the glass and in the passing lanes. His game is very smooth, his outside shot is one of the most textbook at camp and he is proving that he can convert at a high clip. His main problem is that he is incredibly light, which hurts him substantially when attacking off the dribble, as defenders can easily body him out of driving lanes.

Notes: Robert Vaden was fairly disappointing, he left most of his shots short which could be a result of his offbalance release. He struggles off the dribble, allowing defenders to close out more aggressively. Aaron Jackson had some hype going into the camp, but his first game was nothing to write home about. His explosiveness is only decent, and he seems more focused on throwing a behind the back pass rather than completing a simple one. He seems to be going at full throttle at all times which hurts his decision making ability. Most worrisome is his off the shoulder shot, which he is very reluctant to put up…understandably.

Sports Illustrated - Sign of the Times

Sign of the times

Three of the top 10 high school players in the Class of 2009 remain unsigned. Guards Lance Stephenson, Xavier Henry and John Wall have yet to choose a school, and all three are talented enough to significantly impact any team they go to. All three are weighing multiple options, but all have at least one school on their list: Kansas. Should the Jayhawks get any or all of them, plus keep either or both of Aldrich or Collins, they will likely be title favorites for next year.

Tiger Basketball Scheduling

Tiger Basketball Scheduling
Posted by Dan Wolken

In his first 44 hours as Memphis basketball coach, the last thing on Josh Pastner’s mind has been scheduling.

But with John Calipari now out of the way, I imagine that many of the old school Tiger basketball people will attempt to convince Pastner what a great idea it would be to renew all the local “rivalries” with schools like Ole Miss, Arkansas, etc. This already came up this morning on talk radio.

Look, not everything Calipari did here was right for the program. But this is one area where I firmly stand with the Calipari philosophy. It’s just common sense. If Pastner’s job is to lock down good local players - the kind of guys who have signed with Ole Miss the last couple years and are being recruited by Arkansas right now - it makes no sense to enhance the presence of those programs in Memphis by playing them. If you want to play an SEC school, play Vanderbilt, who you’re not usually going to recruit against head-to-head. And what’s the fascination anyway with playing Ole Miss in basketball? Best I remember, the last time Ole Miss played here, there were about 12,000 people in FedExForum on a Saturday. Now that Calipari is gone, we’ll see if the Tennessee series generates the same amount of heat it did the last few years.

If Pastner wants to change the scheduling philosophy a bit, a much smarter strategy would be to augment what Calipari did with Gonzaga. Add home-and-homes with UNLV, Butler and Xavier. (Not all of them, not every year, but sprinkled in among the games you’ve got against teams like Georgetown, Syracuse, etc.) Much better move, in my opinion, than Arkansas and Ole Miss.

New Memphis Tigers coach Pastner made local inroads early

New Memphis Tigers coach Pastner made local inroads early
By Jason Smith, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, April 9, 2009

Wooddale High boys basketball coach Jerry Johnson had never met Josh Pastner when the then-University of Memphis assistant coach introduced himself last summer at the Finch Center.

"When he saw me walk in the University of Memphis gym, his eyes lit up. He knew me before I even knew who he was," said Johnson, has who coached the likes of Philadelphia 76ers forward Thaddeus Young and 2010 top-100 recruit Mardracus Wade over seven seasons at Mitchell.

New Tigers basketball coach Josh Pastner was regularly spotted at White Station games scouting Joe Jackson. Such efforts as an assistant may pay off for Pastner as a head coach -- he said he's going to pay more attention to Memphis recruits than did his predecessor, John Calipari.

"He gave me his Arizona (phone) number. And when he got a local number, he gave that to me. He opened his lines of communication up immediately to me."

Already a familiar face on the local recruiting scene after spending less than a year in Memphis, Pastner said he plans to recruit "inside-out" as the new Tigers head coach -- a philosophy both welcomed and applauded by local prep coaches.

Pastner's first official recruiting duties as Memphis' head coach begin today, the first day of the April contact period for NCAA Division 1 college coaches.

"I think (John) Calipari has done such a great job of recruiting nationally that he was able to overcome the lack of as much of an inside-out approach. There's no question he's been able to overcome it," said St. George's coach Jeff Ruffin.

Ruffin had a pair of 2008 prep standouts sign with out-of-state programs in Elliot Williams (Duke) and Laurence Bowers (Missouri). Williams, a 6-4 McDonald's All-American, picked Duke over Memphis, Tennessee and Virginia.

"But for most jobs and most people, I think to consistently produce the teams you want to, (recruiting) inside-out is very important," Ruffin said.

"Whether you're talking about Ole Miss or Mississippi State (recruiting in) Mississippi or UT (recruiting in) the state of Tennessee or Memphis (recruiting in) the Memphis metropolitan area, I think it's very important."

Johnson, having recently finished his first season at Wooddale, pointed to several recent examples of Memphis-area prep standouts leaving town to play college ball, including Young, who opted to sign with Georgia Tech in 2005.

"(Calipari) wanted Thad. He wanted Elliot Williams. He wanted (Briarcrest Christian senior guard and North Carolina signee) Leslie McDonald," Johnson said. "It was just that he didn't get those guys, and that can be frustrating, that you can get kids from all over the nation and you can't get the ones in your backyard.

"But on the other hand, there are some (players) here in Memphis that, if you have strong ties with the high school coaches, the doors of the (UofM) might open up a lot wider than they have been."

Pastner was a regular spectator this season at White Station basketball games, where he recruited Spartans junior guard Joe Jackson, the No. 15 overall prospect in the class of 2010 according to Rivals.com.

"He's been recruiting me since he got here (last May). He's been recruiting me real hard," Jackson said. "We've got a good relationship.

"I just want to wait and weigh my options and see how well he's going to do this year -- see how things fall into place."

Harding Academy athletic director and boys basketball coach Kevin Starks said Pastner can't afford to let talents like Jackson continue to get out of Memphis.

"For instance, you can't let Joe Jackson go somewhere else. You understand what I'm saying?" Starks said.

"Because you have a national program, you can't let Joe Jackson get out of the city of Memphis. ... For Josh to win over those guys, he's going to have to build a trust and relationships with the parents, aunts and uncles and whoever's involved with their recruiting."

Jason Smith: 529-5804

Two of Calipari's recruits opting out from Memphis

Two of Calipari's recruits opting out from Memphis
Cousins following Tigers' former coach to Kentucky; Dennis destination uncertain
By Dan Wolken, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, April 9, 2009

As expected, two members of the recruiting class compiled by John Calipari last season at the University of Memphis have officially chosen to go elsewhere.

Big man DeMarcus Cousins, a consensus top-five player nationally who verbally committed to Memphis last month, switched to Kentucky on Wednesday. Shooting guard Nolan Dennis, meanwhile, asked for his release from Memphis and apparently will not consider playing for the Tigers under new coach Josh Pastner.

"We just want people to know that we are not going to attend Memphis because we were going to attend Memphis because of Calipari," his mother, Carol Dennis, told Scout.com. "I think Nolan wants to go to Kentucky, but I'm not for sure, but I know he's not going to go to Memphis. That is a definite."

With their departures, that leaves just the two junior college players, forward Will Coleman and wing Darnell Dodson, as Memphis signees. Shooting guard Xavier Henry was also part of the recruiting class, but he has been released from his letter-of-intent and is unlikely to attend Memphis.

Coleman and Dodson could choose to look elsewhere, though Pastner has spent his first days on the job trying to re-recruit the remaining signees. It's also possible that he could attempt to hire their coach, Matt Eisele, onto his Memphis staff in hopes of keeping one or both to smooth the transition.

Pastner said at his news conference Tuesday that if the recruits didn't want to come to Memphis, he'd try to find other players this spring to fill their spots.

"I think their feelings might be a tad bit hurt because all along I was recruiting for Coach Cal and then when he leaves I was part of the process of telling guys that he was going to be here," Pastner said. "I'll have to try to bridge that gap and that'll be tough."

Meanwhile, Pastner is trying to keep the 2009-10 roster together almost singlehandedly until he hires a new coaching staff. His father, Hal Pastner, has remained in town to help while graduate assistant Scott Robinson has also been aiding the transition. The rest of Calipari's staff from Memphis has already gone to Kentucky.

Call Dan Wolken at 529-2365; read his Tiger basketball stories and blog at gomemphistigers.com.

Sporting News: Memphis grants recruit Xavier Henry release

Memphis grants recruit Xavier Henry release

Posted: April 7, 2009
Sporting News staff reports

Shooting guard Xavier Henry, the No. 3 in the nation according to Rivals.com, was granted his release by the University of Memphis on Tuesday, according to The Oklahoman.

Henry has re-opened his recruiting after John Calipari's decision to leave Memphis for the University of Kentucky.

"I'd still say it's between ... three schools -- Kansas, Kentucky and Memphis," Carl Henry, Xavier's father, told the paper.

Responding to a Sporting News report, new Memphis coach Josh Pastner denied that he'd spoken to Carl about a job as director of player operations and said that a deal for Carl to take the job was not in place. Carl told The Oklahoman that he has not heard from Pastner about the job offer.

Tigers Coach Josh Pastner (The Audio) From the Chris Vernon Radio Show (730 Fox Sports Memphis)

Tigers Coach Josh Pastner (The Audio) From the Chris Vernon Radio Show (730 Fox Sports Memphis).

Coach Pastner came on the show today after being named the new head coach at Memphis. We talked about everything I could think of. The audio is below if you missed it. Also, the entire show is always available in full form at http://www.730foxsports.com/

Tigers Head Coach Josh Pastner on The Chris Vernon Show (4-7-09)

and the best email of the day went to Conway's little brother. He sent me the following...From the NCAA Dictionary

Point Leonard (point leh-nerd) - n. The point at which an AD on a coaching search, running out of options, suddenly realizes, "Oh my God, we're actually thinking about hiring Leonard Hamilton!!"; at which point, he throws his hands up, and promotes the assistant coach."R. C. Johnson arrived at Point Leonard on Monday."

Geoff Calkins: New Memphis coach Pastner's the perfect pick-me-up

Geoff Calkins: New Memphis coach Pastner's the perfect pick-me-up
By Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Josh Pastner was standing at the lectern and talking to the masses and explaining that he’d really like the current players to stay at Memphis and continue to be a part of the program.

Wesley Witherspoon — a freshman who has been rumored to be heading to Kentucky with the previous coach — spoke up from the back of the room.

“We ain’t going nowhere,” he said.

There was wild cheering at that. And maybe even some tears.

On a remarkable day in Memphis basketball, it was the singular moment and the singular sentiment, too.

We ain’t going nowhere.

Not Wesley Witherspon, evidently. Not any of the hundreds of thousands of people who love this city and its basketball team.

The old coach is gone. The passion and the people who have forged this thing called Memphis basketball remain.

So at high noon today — one year to the day since Memphis played Kansas for the national championship — they tuned in their TV sets and radios to watch and listen to their new coach.

“Wow,” said Pastner.

Yes, that was his first official word.

So maybe, after everything, this was a “wow” hire.

Pastner, 31, certainly had a good first hour on the job. He was funny and grateful and at ease in the spotlight.

One day earlier, Pastner had driven to the Memphis Athletic Office Building to pack up his stuff for the trip to Kentucky. That’s when Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson called.

Pastner was as stunned as anyone.

“I was in my sweats, I hadn’t showered, my hair was all over the place,” he said.

Also, he had no car. Really. He had already turned in the car that Memphis had given him for the past year.

So he borrowed a buddy’s Toyota Corolla. Drove over to Johnson’s house at Southwind.

Twenty minutes later, they reached a deal.

“I’m humbled,” said Pastner and — here’s the best part — it wasn’t just talk.

At one point during the press conference, someone asked Pastner how he’s different than the previous coach.

“He’s John Calipari and I’m Josh Pastner,” he said, to more wild applause.

It was a great line. The press conference was filled with great lines. But the differences between Calipari and Pastner run straight to their cores.

Calipari is ultimately cynical. He believes everyone has an agenda. He thinks you aren’t paranoid if there’s really someone chasing you.

Pastner is ultimately optimistic. He believes everyone has good inside them. He assumes the guy chasing him is probably a friend, wanting to catch up and say hello.

Calipari: “It is what it is.”

Pastner: “The foundation of all excellence is positive belief.”

That quote is on Pastner’s cell phone right now. That’s what he tells people who just want to leave their numbers and their names.

“Yeah, people give me grief for it,” he said. “But more people like it. They say, ‘That’s just what I needed today.’”

Pastner is a bouncing ball of sunshine. It’s all natural, too.

He’s never tasted alcohol. Never had a carbonated drink.

“I try not to cuss,” he said. “I won’t say I don’t slip, but when I do I get upset at myself.”

Mind you, all of this well-scrubbed exuberance will lose its charm pretty fast if Pastner doesn’t win conference championships.

But for this moment in Memphis basketball — this moment of ultimate rejection and despair — Pastner looks like the perfect pick-me-up.

He’s all energy and enthusiasm. It’s impossible not to pull for the guy. He even liked being called Coach McDreamy in this morning’s column.

“This is supposed to be fun,” he said.

It’s been easy to forget that the past 10 days, hasn’t it? With the tumult and the panic and the choppers overhead?

Coaching searches can be a struggle. Tempers tend to fray.

If Johnson’s hair doesn’t turn gray after this one, the NCAA had better investigate.

But if the week reaffirmed anything, it is how deep the passions run in this town. People love Memphis basketball. For more than 50 years, they’ve held it close.

Now they put their faith in a 31-year kid with dimples as big as his dreams.

Will it work?

Well, maybe that whole upbeat phone message is rubbing off on me, but, yeah. I believe it will.

To reach Geoff Calkins, call 529-2364 or e-mail calkins@commercialappeal.com.

Press Conference With New Tiger Coach Josh Pastner

APRIL 7, 2009 - 03:21 PM

Some highlights from the press conference that introduced Josh Pastner as the 17th men's basketball coach in University of Memphis history:
U of M athletic director R.C. Johnson: "I want to assure Tiger Nation that we checked out every viable candidate, and now it's time to move forward. [Josh] is a man with a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of experience. He's known as one of the most successful Division I recruiters of all time. He's learned basketball from his father, and two incredible basketball coaches -- Lute Olson and John Calipari. He's extremely smart. He graduated from college in two-and-a-half years. He's extremely capable. Everything we do, we'll continue to do with class, dignity, and style. Ladies and gentlemen, Josh Pastner."

Josh Pastner: "Wow. Things happen so fast, in the blink of an eye. I'll tell you this: This is the most humbling experience that I've ever encountered. There 86,400 seconds in a day, from midnight to midnight. You realize how precious life is, and how fortunate things are. When you get an opportunity like this, it's humbling. I -- 100 percent -- totally realize the responsibility I’ve been given. I fully realize it.

"I believe in myself. I've prepared myself for this. My dad's over there, and I remember when I was in 5th grade, watching the Celtics and Lakers play. I went to my dad and said, if I can't play in the NBA -- and I blame my parents for my athletic ability -- the next best thing is coaching. I remember that day. My focus has always been that, if I was to become a head coach, I'll be around and mentoring student-athletes. And it's not athlete-students; it's student-athletes. I took academics seriously, and that's something that’s important to me.

"The standard of excellence here has been set. Unbelievable. And I'm excited about keeping this program at the highest level. We don't want any slippage. We want to keep it rockin' and rollin'. The way to do that is to get great players, coach them up, make sure they're prepared in every which way. One of the things I like to say is the 'Five Ps': Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. We have to be prepared, to work, and get the best players.

"The key is those [players] in the back of the room today. Bottom line. They're the ones who put the program where it is today. Not coaches, the players -- a hundred percent.

"This isn't my team. This is our team, the community's team, the fans' team, the players' team. I say that because success at the University of Memphis is great for the entire city of Memphis. I cannot do it alone. I'm going to hire a great staff. We need the support of everyone, to make this even better. It's us, it's we, it's our team. I look forward to accepting this responsibility. One of my favorite sayings is, 'The foundation of all excellence is positive belief.' If you think positive, great things will happen. This is an exciting time. It's gonna be fun.

"I had a meeting with the players this morning in the dorm, and I told them, we can do what we need to do, have fun, stay together. We want to have a great year next year, and surpass what we did this past season. Our goals remain the same: We want to win conference titles, get to the NCAA, and advance as deeply as possible. Go Tigers. It's a humbling experience. I thank everyone for coming out. I want to thank the players. I'm going to get them to stay and see if they can graduate in three years!"

On the hiring process: "[Monday] morning, I was packing my boxes up, ready to rock and roll to Kentucky. Then R.C. called me and told me to come on over. It was spur of the moment, no hesitation. I jumped on it right away. It all happened in the last 24 hours."

On his coaching style: "I've worked under Lute Olson, who's already in the basketball Hall of Fame. And here with Coach Calipari. In Arizona, believe it or not, we played faster than we have in Memphis at times. Up-tempo, attack, get after it. I'm not a guy to run a set play every time. I want to give them freedom to create their own shot."

On John Calipari’s take on the hiring:

"He said, 'You don't have a job at Kentucky anymore. You're fired. Take the job!' He asked me why I came here. He said this is the premier, elite job in America. Unbelievable support, the community is so involved. It's a gold mine. Obviously, I wouldn't have done anything without his blessing, and he gave me his blessing."

On his staff:

"My phone has been ringing off the hook. I delete a text message and 150 more come in, just like that. When R.C. offered me the job, the first thing I said to myself is, 'What do I need to do to make sure my things are in order?' Number-one was the players, number-two the recruits. After that, I'll go from there. I've got some ideas, staff-wise. We'll get the best I can get, guys who are future head coaches. Guys who can coach, recruit, and deal with academics, do everything."

On recruits:

"We're in the midst of talking with them. We'll have to wait and see. For 10 months, they'd signed to play for Coach Cal, even when I was recruiting them. We'll see. No matter what, we're going to go and get great players. Coach Olson used to always say there are three things you need to win championships: players, players, and players. It doesn't guarantee you win a championship, but it gives you a chance. You also need good guys, good teammates who care about the university. We want guys coming in here who bleed Tiger basketball."

On his youth (age 31): "Age is a number. Age is overrated. If we were worried about age, Obama wouldn;t have been elected, Tiger Woods wouldn't be doing what he’s doing. It's about production, about you as a human being, how you treat others. What's in your heart. It comes down to integrity and honesty."

On recruiting in Memphis: "We will recruit inside-out. We want to keep kids who are good enough here in the city, in the state, whatever. But the kids have to be good enough, academically and athletically."

On his nerves:

"I'm jacked, ready to rock and roll. I'm not much of a sleeper, and I don't drink coffee either. I'm a high-energy guy. I love life. I'm a morning guy. I believe the best way to live your life is to be positive. From there, we'll take the next step."

Dan Wilken - What A Day

What a day!
Posted by Dan Wolken

- First of all, thank goodness it’s over. Coaching searches aren’t fun for anyone, especially the reporters who have to cover them.

- I want to commend the reporting of myself, Geoff Calkins and Gary Parrish. Hopefully now everyone can see that the three of us were quite plugged into what was happening with this search and that, no, we weren’t “making stuff up” or “taking message board rumors and running with them.” Things were exactly as we said they were.

- While the process may not have gone smoothly, the end result was exciting. Since it broke that Josh Pastner was going to be the coach, there’s been a lot of positive energy. It’s different, it’s outside-the-box and it’s potentially a great hire. Not to say there aren’t risks or caveats, but Josh was going to get a head coaching job soon, and probably do well in that job. So why not this one?

- Josh is a great guy, will be a really positive face for the program and will take the PR aspect seriously. People like Josh, and that’s a big first step toward success. He’s been a tremendous recruiter, and I think he’ll continue to be a tremendous recruiter. Josh is organized and driven, and he’s been preparing for this since he was 16 years old.

- Anyone who thinks this was part of a grand, complex plan is simply mistaken. Pastner went into the office Monday morning to clean out his office and head to Kentucky. I spent a lot of time talking to Josh this weekend. People, I can guarantee you, as recently as Sunday he thought he had no shot to get the Memphis job. But things change. I called him this morning and left him a message joking about a bidding war between Memphis and Arizona for him to be the head coach. In reality, it wasn’t too far from the truth. If Sean Miller had turned down Arizona, there would have been a big push for Josh to get that job.

- On Monday morning, the Memphis coaching search essentially had to start over. They got together on Monday morning and planned to offer Derek Kellogg. After reaching out to Kellogg, however, they realized there were complications. John Calipari was pushing Tony Barbee for the job. Kellogg had been selected at UMass ahead of Barbee a year ago. Memphis was not going to hire Barbee under any circumstances, simply on principle, due to Calipari’s endorsement. Given that, it would have been difficult for Kellogg to take the Memphis job.

- After Sean Miller changed his mind and took the Arizona job, I had heard that R.C. Johnson called Pastner into a meeting Monday mid-day. Then I heard that Kellogg was not going to take the Memphis job. Things progressed quickly from there.

- An Internet rumor that Pastner is going to hire Jim Rosborough, a former colleague at Arizona, is false. Don’t look for Pastner to hire Kevin O’Neill on his bench, either.

- The local TV reporters, as they usually do, jumped the gun on the Carl Henry to Memphis staff story. I wouldn’t totally rule it out, but it’s extremely premature. Typical of TV reporters here, though, to take something that Parrish threw out on Chris Vernon’s radio show as speculation and run with it as fact.

- I think it’s very likely that Matt Eisele, the coach at Miami-Dade Junior College, ends up with a job at Memphis next year.

One-On-one with Josh Pastner: From LeBron and back

One-On-one with Josh Pastner: From LeBron and back

By Brian Penso
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday February 4, 2003

Wildcat: All the talk in the basketball world has been about LeBron James. What is your take on his situation and him as a player?

Pastner: First off, I am not allowed to directly comment about LeBron James because he is still a recruit. All I can say is that I would rather see a young player be influenced from the outside with shoes and clothes if it is going to keep them away from gangs and drugs. If playing basketball gives them a window to stay off the streets and do the right thing, then I am all for that.

Wildcat: Everyone feels sorry for LeBron. Do you think the people to really feel sorry for are his teammates, who are ranked No. 1 in the country?

Pastner: On any level, whether it is high school, college, or the NBA, if you lose a great player the team is going to be affected. However, basketball is a team game, and the other four players and the bench have to step up their play. Basketball is not like golf or tennis. A team wins because everyone comes together and steps up their play.

Wildcat: Besides UA, who do you think deserves to be No. 1 and who are the top teams in the country?

Pastner: If I picked the No. 1 team, I would pick Florida because they have won 14 games in a row. Texas is a very dangerous team and Kentucky has been playing great basketball. Kentucky plays Florida on Tuesday, and that will be a great game. Also, you can't forget about Kansas. They will be a force to be reckoned with once they are healthy.

Wildcat: With the Pacific-10 Conference season halfway over, who deserves to be Pac-10 Player of the Year?

Pastner: That is really hard to decide. Before Moore got hurt at Washington State, he was putting up big numbers. If you look at our team, we have so much talent that the stats of our players don't look as good as other players around the conference. I think the winners of the conference and the Pac-10 tournament will play a huge role in deciding the conference player of the year.

Wildcat: There are a lot of point guards in the country that put up better numbers then Jason Gardner. Where do you think Gardner ranks among the nation's top point guards?

Pastner: Jason is the best point guard in the country. He is tougher than nails and he has the heart of a lion. I would not trade him for any player in the country. If I could describe him in one word it would be "winner." He just knows what it takes to win.

Wildcat: Coaches play a huge role in the success of a college program. Besides Lute Olson, what coaches do you think have done the best job this season?

Pastner: There are so many good coaches in the game today. Mike Montgomery has done a great job at Stanford. Jay John at Oregon State has done a great job in his first year. Also, Rick Pitino at Louisville has taken a team and turned them into a contender.

Wildcat: Coach John at OSU, coached under Olson. Are you surprised at the success that he has had with the Beavers, or was he well prepared for the challenge?

Pastner: Many people may be surprised, but I knew he would do a good job. He has his team disciplined and ready to go. I knew that he was well prepared after coaching here to be successful. He has done a fantastic job.

Wildcat: March Madness is a month away. When you wake up in the morning, is that the first think that you think about?

Pastner: In a month, it is all about winning. If you lose you go home. With it being a month away, we still have to learn to be motivated for every game. That will take discipline. Once March comes, we know that is about winning and nothing else.

Sports Illustrated (Mar 16, 1998) - Rounding Up The Dark Horses

March 16, 1998

Rounding Up The Dark Horses
Sports Illustrated

With the help of a precocious coach-in-training at Arizona, we check out the long shots and speculate on which of them might gallop to the Alamodome

Alexander Wolff

Perhaps the least suspenseful moment in last Sunday's NCAA selection show was the unveiling of the tournament's top four seeds. We've known who they would be since November. History nonetheless tells us that they won't compose the Final Four, and hence our task: finding, scaring up or otherwise raising an Arizona—some improbable team that, like last season's Wildcats, will make a run deep into the tournament, if not win it.

To do so, we could have scrolled through the power ratings, rankings and other cybereffluvia clogging the Internet, or trotted out the usual follically impaired TV pundits whose verbiage is fouling the airwaves. But we came up with a better idea. We found an obscure flesh-and-blood college basketball polymath who has barely started shaving, let alone lost any hair. He knows cold both the Arizona team of a year ago (for he was on it) and all that has transpired in the game this season (for he has seen it).

Meet Arizona sophomore Josh Pastner, a 5'11" reserve guard who spends up to 25 hours a week in the film room of the Wildcats' basketball office. "I've wanted to be a coach since the fourth grade," says Pastner, who began reading all he could about the game as a grade-schooler and by age 12 was phoning college coaches to pick their brains and cadge game tapes. By 13 Josh had started his own high school scouting service. By 14 he and his dad, Hal, had founded a traveling AAU team, the Houston Hoops. By the time he was 15, coaches from the top programs were calling him at home in Kingwood, a Houston suburb, for a dose of The World According to Josh. A year later he was running the Hoops on his own, directing tryouts and arranging flights as well as handling the X's and O's, despite being younger than the players in his charge. Josh even started a girls' team so he could steepen his learning curve.

Three Top 20 programs offered Pastner assistant coaching jobs out of high school. (He declines to name the schools, for obvious reasons.) Instead, in 1996 Pastner, who's known as the Doogie Howser of college basketball, accepted a scholarship to play at Arizona. Now 20, he shows up at the Wildcats' basketball offices at seven each morning to help coach Lute Olson and his staff. Except to go to classes, he doesn't leave the McKale Center until 10 or 11 at night, after supervising extra shooting by players such as his roommate, point guard Mike Bibby, and swingmen Michael Dickerson and Miles Simon. Along the way, Pastner watches tape. So much tape, in fact, that he can tell you exactly why he likes....

Mississippi. All the way down to its red-and-blue uniforms, Ole Miss has that Arizona look: The Rebels have passers, handlers and shooters at every position—beginning with SEC player of the year Ansu Sesay, Pastner's homey, a graduate of Houston's Willowridge High—and, with four players scoring nine or more per game, they spread the points around. Also like Arizona, Mississippi is a good three-point-shooting team that defends against the shot so well (opponents don't make even one in three) that there's little percentage in taking it.

Ole Miss has never won a tournament game, but that doesn't faze Pastner, who notes that the edition of the Rebels that reached the NCAAs a year ago is back essentially intact. And there should be no question about the moxie of a team that fell behind 24-11 at Rupp Arena on Feb. 14 and then came back to beat Kentucky. " Mississippi is experienced," says Pastner. "It has a star player. And its style will be hard to prepare for on short notice."

The same is true of TCU and its star, forward Lee Nailon. Horned Frogs coach Billy Tubbs, who made NCAA tournament noise with perennial underdog Lamar in the late 1970s and took Oklahoma to the '88 championship game, has another fearless, up-tempo crew. Like Arizona, TCU has three perimeter scorers and the ability, with reserve James Penny, to field five players who can score facing the basket—although point guard Prince Fowler, like Bibby, doesn't look first to shoot. Also like the '97 champs, the Horned Frogs can claim that they have been denied respect. Though Texas Christian hopped through its WAC schedule unbeaten, it wasn't admitted to the coaches' Top 25 until Feb. 16. "TCU plays that style, up and down," says Pastner. "The Frogs are like us in that they don't have set places on the floor. How do you set up your scout team?"

It's hard to think of a No. 2 seed as a team that might sneak up on anybody, but there's such a perception gap between the four No. Is and the rest of the field that Connecticut arguably qualifies as a sleeper. There has been very little whoopee surrounding the Huskies this season—certainly nowhere near the amount of two years ago, when UConn took All-America Ray Allen and a top seeding into the tournament, only to fail to reach the Southeast Regional final. Now that Olson has finally had his hair messed up in a Monday-night celebration, the Huskies' Jim Calhoun shares the mantle of Coach Most Overdue with Kansas's Roy Williams and Purdue's Gene Keady.

Other evidence of UConn's Arizona-ness: a precocious freshman point guard, Khalid El-Amin, who does the nation's best impression of the Bibby of a year ago; a three-guard attack; and a victory over Stanford thanks to speed, versatility and defensive pressure. "With Khalid and sophomores Kevin Freeman and Jake Voskuhl, the Huskies aren't real old," Pastner points out, intending a compliment. "Last year we had a sense of confidence that all the work we put in, the extra shooting and extra weightlifting, would pay off. That's one of the good things about being young-you don't know any better. In the tournament we were just kids running around."
Clemson is like the 1996-97 Wildcats in that it received a middling No. 6 seed as a result of a rocky regular season, and in that one of its critical cogs, guard Terrell McIntyre, has been hampered by infirmities, as Simon was a year ago. But Clemson, picked as high as No. 5 in the preseason, is at full strength again. "From the tape I saw of the Tigers' second game with Duke, they're very disciplined," Pastner says. "Remember, too, that they have experience. They made the Sweet 16 last year." Pastner also notes that Clemson finished tied for fourth in the ACC and made the NCAA field at 21-9. A year ago Arizona placed fifth in its league and lost nine games.

Pastner to Memphis, where does that leave possible UK recruits?

Pastner to Memphis, where does that leave possible UK recruits?

http://www.straitpinkie.com/sports/cats/pastner-to-memphis-where-does-that-leave-possible-uk-recruits/

April 6th, 2009 Filed Under: Cats Tags: demarcus cousins, john calipari, john wall, josh pastner, Memphis Tigers, nolan dennis, xavier henry

So, Josh Pastner is not going to be an assistant at UK. However, if you somehow allow that to dampen your optimism about John Calipari as the coach of Kentucky…well, you shouldn’t. UK hired John Calipari, not Josh Pastner, and while it would have been nice to have Pastner on the staff for a year or two, that’s the longest he would have been around.

Is it possible that Pastner presence would have made a difference in one of the recruits that UK is after for next year? Maybe. Is it likely? I doubt it. Where Pastner could make a difference is in retaining guys who signed with Memphis like Xavier Henry and Nolan Dennis. I don’t think he’s going to be able to grab DeMarcus Cousins or John Wall away from the big boys.

Let’s take a look at these four guys and where they are now that the dust has settled a bit after Coach Cal’s arrival.

John Wall-Wall has targeted April 18th as the day he will narrow his list. That’s coming up soon folks. No one can seem to get a handle on his recruitment. Some think he’s a Duke lean because he wants to stay close to his sick mother. Some think he’s a UK lean because he wants to follow Coach Calipari. Some think UNC is going to swoop in at the last moment and steal him away. Kansas, Miami, Baylor, and NC State are still lurking as well. What we do know is that this is a kid who is a program changer, even though he’s only a one year player. He is priority number one for both UK and Duke, and if I had to guess, I say it will be one of those two schools, and I don’t think he fits in at Duke. However, his family considerations could loom large.

DeMarcus Cousins-There has been some buzz yesterday and today that a decision from Cousins could be forthcoming (as in early this week). When the Calipari thing first broke, my gut was that Cousins would end up elsewhere. However, I have been slowly coming to the other side of the fence has time as passed. I really haven’t heard any other schools emerge for his services, so I have to think UK is the favorite at this point. However, there is some consternation over the fact that Josh Pastner was involved in Cousins recruitment to Memphis. I think, though, that a kid ultimately commits to a head coach and a school, not an assistant. We’ll see if Pastner can work his magic.

Xavier Henry-Honestly, I always thought Henry was a long shot, and Pastner taking the Memphis job doesn’t change that, it just makes him a long shot for a different reason. People are talking, and word is that Henry’s father, Carl, may be in line for a position on Pastner’s staff at Memphis. Add to that the fact that Xavier’s brother, CJ, would have trouble transferring without sitting out a year, and he spent last year at Memphis. Kansas has gone from losing out on Henry to Memphis, to the favorite for Henry, to looking like they very well could lose out to Memphis after all.

Nolan Dennis-Something always made me think Dennis would end up at Memphis, even after Calipari’s departure, and I think Pastner being named as coach makes it even more likely for him to hold to his Letter of Intent.

Sports Illustrated (Feb 3, 2003) - Whiz-kid Coach

February 03, 2003
Sports Illustrated

Whiz-kid Coach

At age 25, hoops-obsessed Arizona assistant Josh Pastner is on the fast track to a top job

John O'keefe

LAST NOVEMBER, Arizona assistant basketball coach Josh Pastner was on a date when he felt his cellphone vibrate. Recognizing the number of a prized recruit, 6'10" forward Ndudi Ebi from Houston, Pastner excused himself from one promising prospect and spent the rest of the movie talking to another. Two weeks later Ebi signed with the Wildcats, but Pastner's budding romance fizzled. "On his dates his phone will ring or he'll be watching TV during dinner," says Arizona associate head coach Jim Rosborough. "No girl will go out with him very long."

Pastner, 25, has been making sacrifices to his hoops obsession nearly his whole life. When he was 10, his father, Hal, founded the Houston Hoops AAU team, and Josh often traveled with the team around the country. At 13 he launched The josh Pastner Scouting Report, a 100-page annual based on his observations of national AAU talent. Three years later Hal handed his son the coaching duties.

In the summer of '95 Josh, then a high school senior, sent a letter to Rosborough inviting the Arizona staff to a workout in Houston to check out his team's college prospects. Rosborough was impressed with the workout—and with the precocious Pastner. "I just called him every Sunday for a year," says Pastner. A slow 5'9" point guard at Kingwood High, Pastner was hardly Division I material, but he marketed himself as a "coach in training." Rosborough and coach Lute Olson offered Josh an athletic scholarship.

At his first team meeting, Pastner stood up and preached the value of hard work to All-Pac-10 guard Miles Simon and future NBAers Mike Bibby, Michael Dickerson and Jason Terry. The players laughed. Soon, though, Simon started doing the drills Pastner had recommended to help his stroke. Bibby joined the workouts, and then Terry and forward Bennett Davidson. Says Bibby, now a point guard with the Sacramento Kings, "A lot of those drills I still use today."

By season's end Bibby and Pastner had become roommates. Arizona finished fifth in the Pac-10 but caught fire in the NCAA tournament and stormed to the national title.

Pastner averaged just 0.9 points a game in four seasons but contributed in other ways. By his senior year he was scouting opponents, breaking down film and running the scout team at practice. After serving as a graduate assistant, administrative assistant and recruiting coordinator, last summer he was hired as a full-timer.

Pastner makes no bones about his goal of being a head coach. In the summer of '98, following his sophomore year at Arizona, he applied for the vacant Los Angeles Clippers head coaching position. Since then he has sent his résumé whenever an NBA head job has opened. The last two summers he has pursued Division positions at Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern. Both times he visited the campuses uninvited, introducing himself to the president and the athletic director. He was seriously considered by each school. Prairie View athletic director Charles McClelland ultimately chose Jerome Francis Jr., 10 years Pastner's senior, but says, "Josh is going to be a heck of a coach someday."

Meanwhile Pastner will continue his tireless efforts for the Wildcats. He sleeps four hours a night and is at his office daily by 7 a.m. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment 10 minutes from campus, stocks only milk and cereal in the kitchen and uses plastic forks and paper plates. "I'm a different dude," says Pastner.

"He's way beyond his years in terms of his understanding of the game," says Olson. "I think he really wins over guys with his dedication to making them better."

Still, Rosborough tries to find Pastner some nonbasketball interests—namely female companionship. "I feel very lucky to know exactly what I want to do," says Pastner. "Whoever I date is going to have to understand that this is who I am."

Tucson Business Edge 40 Under 40 - Josh Pastner

Tucson Business Edge 40 Under 40
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/tbe/40under40/winners07/pastner.php

Josh Pastner

Assistant men's basketball coach, University of Arizona

Age: 29

Community involvement: The Event; The Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson; Boy Scouts of America; The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, celebrity waiters dinner; Special Olympics

Best advice you've received: A person's true self-worth is how you treat others when they can do nothing for you.

Proudest professional accomplishment: Being able to go to work every day and never once feel like it is a job. That is cool! I love what I do.

Unique thing no one knows about you: I have never had any alcohol or any carbonated drink in my life.

A word from the nominator: "Josh has the most positive outlook on life and it radiates throughout his personality, and this community benefits from it. Never a negative word or attitude will come out of his mouth or actions. He is truly the person that believes the glass is always half full." - Monica Armenta, senior office specialist, UA athletics department