Coach on the Rise: Josh Pastner | Real College Basketball

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Coach on the Rise: Josh Pastner

Written by Quentin Haynes

Sunday, 29 November 2009 22:05

March 30, 2009. Memphis lost to Missouri four days before in the NCAA tournament. John Calipari, the man who brought in such high level recruits like Tyreke Evans, Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas Roberts, Antonio Anderson, Joey Dorsey, Shawne Williams, Rodney Carney, Darius Washington and DaJuan Wagner to Memphis was leaving to Kentucky. Not only did he leave a very young team, he left with dirt on his name. Allegations of allowing ineligible players (Guard Derrick Rose) play, helping with SAT's ( Rose and Forward Robert Dozier) gave the departure a black eye. Suddenly, the University of Memphis lost top recruits DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky), Xavier Henry (Kansas) and Nolan Dennis (Baylor) and were looking like a team going the wrong way. With the NCAA wanting to vacate the Tigers' school record and NCAA record 38 wins and money returned to sponsors, Memphis was a team going the wrong way.

April 6, 2009. The University of Memphis decided to hire top assistant Josh Pastner. His father Hal Pastner gave 16 year old Josh his Houston AAU team to coach where he coached NBA players like Emeka Okafor and T.J. Ford. Pastner then began his basketball career as a walk-on with the 1997 University of Arizona basketball team. After Arizona won the National Championship, Pastner graduated in 2 years and by 2002, He was a assistant to Lute Olsen in Arizona. By 2007, Pastner gained the reputation as being a relentless recruiter, helping Arizona add players such as Mustafa Shakur, Marcus Williams, J.P Prince, Jordan Hill, Nic Wise, Chase Budinger among many other high level recruits. In 2008, Pastner decided to leave Arizona to assume the same role in Memphis where he helped John Calipari lead this Memphis team to the sweet sixteen.

Many thought this was a rebuilding year in Memphis. But along the line, Memphis began to hit a stroke of good luck. Former Duke guard Elliot Williams transferred to Memphis to be close to family. Wesley Witherspoon decided to not transfer and Coach Pastner even added some beef to the recruiting class with Will Coleman. And if that's not all, Josh Pastner is still recruiting hard. He snagged Top 5 shooting guard Will Barton early in the recruiting process. Along with top 10 point guard Joe Jackson , top 10 shooting guard Jelan Kendrick, Big Men Tarik Black and Hippolyte Tsafack with scrappy guards Chris Crawford and Antonio Barton: Josh Pastner and Memphis currently owns the #1 recruiting class. That's not all, Memphis is playing hard for Pastner coming a 3 pointer away from upsetting #1 Kansas, Memphis is looking up and Pastner is leading this ship to not only another Conference USA title, maybe coach Pastner will sneak up and surprise people with some huge wins in February and March

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