Memphis hires assistant Josh Pastner as coach

Memphis has hired Josh Pastner, an assistant under John Calipari, as the Tigers' new basketball coach, a school spokesman said Monday. The university scheduled a news conference for noon Central Tuesday to introduce the 31-year-old Pastner, said athletics spokesman Bob Winn.

Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky last week after nine seasons with the Tigers.

Pastner, who is regarded to be a strong recruiter, worked one year under Calipari after six years as an assistant at Arizona, where he also played.

During Pastner's time under former Arizona coach Lute Olson, the Wildcats averaged 23 wins per season, captured two Pac-10 regular season titles, advanced to two NCAA Tournament regional finals and made six-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

In his only season at Memphis, the Tigers finished 33-4 with a Conference USA title and an NCAA regional semifinals appearance.

While in high school and college, Pastner coached AAU squads, following in the footsteps of his father, Hal Pastner, an acclaimed AAU coach in Houston, Texas.

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said last week that he planned to hire a new coach who would "wow" Tiger fans — one with head coaching experience. Names that surfaced during the search included Tennessee's Bruce Pearl, Baylor's Scott Drew and Florida State's Leonard Hamilton.

Memphis struggled mightily to hang on to Calipari but sought to put the best twist on his departure — saying the successful program he built was attractive enough to land one of the country's top coaches. Officials also boasted that university supporters would come up with plenty of money to pay a new coach.

Calipari was paid $2.3 million a year at Memphis and now has an eight-year contract at Kentucky worth nearly $32 million.

There was no immediate word on a Pastner's salary.

Calls from The Associated Press to Johnson and Alan Graf, a top member of the university's search team and the chief financial officer for FedEx Corp., were not returned Monday.

University officials refused to name coaches contacted about the Memphis job, but Johnson had said when word got out that Calipari was leaving his phone had been ringing off the hook. However, published reports indicated the search was not going as smoothly as the Tigers' concerned fans might have hoped.

One of the Memphis' latest contacts was with Hamilton of Florida State. The Seminoles acknowledged Monday that he had talked with the Tigers — but then announced a few hours later that Hamilton had a new five-year deal to stay in Tallahassee, Fla.

Drew issued a statement over the weekend saying he was staying at Baylor.

"Whenever your name is rumored for another job, it's a positive reflection on your hard work and respect for the job you are doing," Drew said. "At the same time, our staff wanted to rebuild Baylor into an elite basketball program and we are on the right track."

Early media reports on the Memphis search focused on Pearl, but Tennessee announced it had negotiated a new six-year contract with him.

Mike Anderson of Missouri and Southern California coach Tim Floyd were also mentioned as potential Memphis candidates. But Missouri approved a new contract for Anderson and Floyd said he was staying at USC.

Why Arizona Basketball Needs Josh Pastner To Save the Program

If Xavier’s Sean Miller, Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, and all the other current and former coaches decide to spurn Tucson’s sunshine and stay put, Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood would be best served hiring a former face: 31-year old Josh Pastner.

The former Arizona walk-on, assistant coach, and for the past year an assistant and lead recruiter to John Calipari at Memphis would bring back the family atmosphere that the program has lacked the past two years.

Furthermore, Arizona is too good a program to be used by coaches to get better deals and have negative press continuously heaped upon it. Livengood needs a man who wants the job and will not use it as a stepping stone down the road.

Josh Pastner is that man.

Even as a little-used guard under Lute Olson in the mid-'90s Pastner acted more as coach than player. He was almost immediately hired to work under Olson after his eligibility ran out, and then had the foresight to leave the program for Memphis before WWIII really began in Tucson, with Lute Olson’s blessing.

Pastner is a brilliant recruiter, and has brought talent from across the west, most notably California and Texas, to the desert. His deep recruiting ties throughout the west will help Arizona face its first hurdle, its lack of essentially two years’ worth of recruits.

Whoever the head coach is next year, he will need warm bodies to fill the bench, and lots of them. While a coach should not be hired based solely on one year’s worth of recruits he could bring in, it should be noted that the star-studded Memphis recruiting class is up for grabs now that John Calipari has left for Kentucky.

Who’s to say Pastner couldn’t get one or two of them to come to Tucson? It’s not that hard of a sell.

Albeit for only one year, his apprenticeship under Calipari coupled with his near decade under Olson provides Pastner about as much preparation and knowledge possible for a career assistant. Why not go with Pastner?

The obvious, and only, negative about Pastner is his inexperience as a head coach. From an outside perspective, it is understandable to think that he should build his way up to a program of Arizona’s stature rather than beginning his career in Tucson.

This is a valid argument, however if Pastner surrounds himself with a quality, experienced coaching staff he should be able to turn Arizona Basketball around and bring it back to prominence.

First and foremost, Pastner would need an experienced lead assistant, and the most obvious choice would be Jim Rosborough, who was an assistant under Lute Olson both at Iowa and Arizona for 27 years. Other candidates should and undoubtedly would be considered, but whoever is selected must be an old and wise Yoda to Pastner’s Skywalker.

The one and only drawback to hiring Pastner is his inexperience, and having an established lead assistant will help ease the transition.

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