Friday, April 10, 2009
Pastner the Prodigy
No one told Mozart he was too young to compose music, so why should anyone say Josh Pastner is too young to coach basketball? While researching a little more into Josh Pastner's pedigree as a coach, I came across an old SI article. You can click on the title above to read for yourself, but for the lazy folks, here are the highlights:
- Started a high school basketball scouting service at age 14.
- Started an AAU team (Houston Hoops) with his dad. Josh took over at age 16.
- While in high school, college coaches would contact him daily, not for his playing ability, but his coaching ability.
- 3 Top 20 college basketball programs offered him assistant coaching jobs out of HIGH SCHOOL.
After reading this article, I will applaud Memphis for one reason. For the first time in the history of our athletic program, we have been innovative, trailblazing, or whatever you want to call it. We could have just hired a coach that with his experience and expertise, would have been hired if he had more gray hair by Arizona, Kentucky, or anyone else with an opening for a top job.
Let's look at some of his qualities that make him a perfect head coach.
1. He sleeps 4 hours a night - most of the time this isn't a good thing. This usually means that your coach is on the verge of an Andy Kennedy type incident but not Pastner. Pastner doesn't drink alcohol, carbonated beverages, and tries to mind his tongue. This brings us to the next point:
2. He works his tail off - Since he was 16 years old, he has arranged travel, tryouts, and anything dealing with operating an AAU team. He went to class, played on basketball, watched 25 hours of film per week, and ran Arizona's star players through extra drills after practice. As a coach, he was the top recruiter in Arizona and Memphis. You can't be a top recruiter without outworking the next guy.
3. He knows his stuff - You don't talk basketball with top college coaches since you are a teenager and not have some of it rub off. Also considering that he was offered a scholarship as a "coach-in-training", he must be ahead of the game. Has that ever happened before?
While some aren't ready to fully trust Pastner, I am not one of them. Forget his age, look at his accomplishments. Pastner is Prodigy.
-Blake
- Started a high school basketball scouting service at age 14.
- Started an AAU team (Houston Hoops) with his dad. Josh took over at age 16.
- While in high school, college coaches would contact him daily, not for his playing ability, but his coaching ability.
- 3 Top 20 college basketball programs offered him assistant coaching jobs out of HIGH SCHOOL.
After reading this article, I will applaud Memphis for one reason. For the first time in the history of our athletic program, we have been innovative, trailblazing, or whatever you want to call it. We could have just hired a coach that with his experience and expertise, would have been hired if he had more gray hair by Arizona, Kentucky, or anyone else with an opening for a top job.
Let's look at some of his qualities that make him a perfect head coach.
1. He sleeps 4 hours a night - most of the time this isn't a good thing. This usually means that your coach is on the verge of an Andy Kennedy type incident but not Pastner. Pastner doesn't drink alcohol, carbonated beverages, and tries to mind his tongue. This brings us to the next point:
2. He works his tail off - Since he was 16 years old, he has arranged travel, tryouts, and anything dealing with operating an AAU team. He went to class, played on basketball, watched 25 hours of film per week, and ran Arizona's star players through extra drills after practice. As a coach, he was the top recruiter in Arizona and Memphis. You can't be a top recruiter without outworking the next guy.
3. He knows his stuff - You don't talk basketball with top college coaches since you are a teenager and not have some of it rub off. Also considering that he was offered a scholarship as a "coach-in-training", he must be ahead of the game. Has that ever happened before?
While some aren't ready to fully trust Pastner, I am not one of them. Forget his age, look at his accomplishments. Pastner is Prodigy.
-Blake
Thursday, April 9, 2009
That Ain't My Currr-sin...
I don't think the brethren hyphenate the word "cousin", but I'm spelling phonetically here. Work with me.
So Cousins followed Cal to Kentucky. That's fine. Latest recruiting rumor is Latavious Williams, a strong PF prospect, is close to Pastner and may be interested in Memphis. Some worry that he might not qualify at other schools. Welcome to Memphis, Latavious.
So Cousins followed Cal to Kentucky. That's fine. Latest recruiting rumor is Latavious Williams, a strong PF prospect, is close to Pastner and may be interested in Memphis. Some worry that he might not qualify at other schools. Welcome to Memphis, Latavious.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Another One Bites the Dust...
ZAGSBLOG is reporting that Nolan Dennis is following Cal and Cousins to Kentucky. While Cousins wasn't a huge surprise, there was speculation that Dennis would stick around. This sucks. Hopefully he is the last deserter.On a related note, Nolan's mother Carol claims that her son will be following Cal because "a lot of kids need a good hard when they’re playing." If there's any coach out there who knows how to give a good hard, it's Cal.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Don't Get Me Wrong... I'm Excited about Pert Plus Pastner.
But why did it take RC and the Gang over a week to discover the new Memphis Jewel?
Cal and the team landed in Memphis on the morning of Friday, March 27. Roughly 2.7 seconds later, Cal was in serious negotiations with the University of Kentucky.
RC should have begun contacting other coaching prospects immediately upon granting Kentucky permission to speak with Cal. Reasonably speaking, he should have put the feelers out a few hours after the team landed.
Instead, the people of Memphis were left with excruciating uncertainty until the next Tuesday... 5 whole days! The next day, Memphis fans were led to believe that the Tigers would be making a "WOW! hire" very soon to replace Calipari.
As a sidenote, I hate the term "WOW hire". It gives Memphis fans a doe-eyed, backwoods look. I fully expected the school to release their next statement rife with lines such as, "Well, gaaaaahw-lee! This coach-huntin' is mighty tough!" and "Aw, shucks! The NIT ain't so bad!" For future reference, if I write about anything that is ridiculous or stupid, it will be deemed a WOW! "X".
On the heels of the promise to bring in basketball royalty to replace Cal, names such as Rick Pitino, Bruce Pearl, even Bob Knight surfaced.
Really?! Pitino will leave his thoroughbred team, in a thoroughbred conference, in Louisville where he raises thoroughbreds to come back to the conference from which he bolted four years ago?
Really?! Bruce Pearl will leave a school that's embraced him, the city in which his kids live, the hotbed (you know it) of coeds, and free cut and color whenever he needs one?
Really?! Bob Knight? Really.
So the days dragged along. After the first line of defense has fallen, Memphis fans begin to recapture a sense of reason and begin discussing the possibilities of Scott Drew, Reggie Theus and Andy Kennedy.
While the Scott Drew experiment (thankfully) blew over and Kennedy was left in Oxford without a cabbie, the university was silent. Even my contacts in the athletic department were clamming up... Considering the chaos and possibly failures of the past few days, the silence was deafening.
None of the big names were coming. No under-the-radar, mid-major guru was sneaking in. No NBA coach was going to settle into the Tiger post.
Being the head coach of the Memphis Tigers is a hard job. Apart from selling the city and school, you have to sell the conference, which means you have to sell the lack of airtime, highlights and all-around media acknowledgement, much less attention.
When all seemed to be lost and Memphis seemed to be destined to dwell in the bottom of the CUSA barrel, lightning struck on Monday, April 6. Memphis has a coach. It's Josh "Pert Plus" Pastner, the 31 year old assistant of Cal for the previous year and Lute Olsen for six years before that.
This was definitely a WOW! hire and, initially, it seemed to fit my definition of a WOW! hire.
Pastner is a Cal guy. He's 31. He's only been an assistant, whose main jobs have been recruiting and making donut runs.
However, it didn't take long before the college basketball talking heads warmed to this hire.
Pastner is an excellent recruiter. He's assisted under two of the biggest names in the game over the past decade. He's an excellent PR guy. Chicks dig him. The current players like him. He pushes the up-tempo style that Memphis fans have grown to love. He is definitely an up-and-comer in the college game.
It didn't take long for the good to outweigh the bad in the minds of Tiger fans. On that fact alone, the hire has to be considered an initial success. Bringing any positive energy at all to the situation warrants a cautious pat on the back for RC and the Gang.
Nevertheless, my question remains... Why on God's green earth did it take 10 days to make this happen? Pastner was literally packing up his office to follow Cal to Kentucky when RC called him in and offered him the Tiger's head coaching job.
Was it Pastner's age? Was it his lack of head coaching experience? Could it have been that every other direction Memphis began to travel was closed off and they finally dropped to square one and took a leap of faith?
Who knows? The chance of RC and the Gang being transparent about the process is slim. RC may have simply consulted his trusty Magic 8-Ball for the final answer.
Regardless of the fact that the search was sloppy and hurried, the hire took gusto. As I've said before, Cal did so much, not only the Memphis Tigers basketball team, but for the school and the city of Memphis. Placing those reins in an unproven, 31-year old, former assistant coach's hands is either a recipe for disaster or sowing the seeds of an incredible story.
Either way, Memphis has its head coach... and not a moment to soon.
-JB
Cal and the team landed in Memphis on the morning of Friday, March 27. Roughly 2.7 seconds later, Cal was in serious negotiations with the University of Kentucky.RC should have begun contacting other coaching prospects immediately upon granting Kentucky permission to speak with Cal. Reasonably speaking, he should have put the feelers out a few hours after the team landed.
Instead, the people of Memphis were left with excruciating uncertainty until the next Tuesday... 5 whole days! The next day, Memphis fans were led to believe that the Tigers would be making a "WOW! hire" very soon to replace Calipari.
As a sidenote, I hate the term "WOW hire". It gives Memphis fans a doe-eyed, backwoods look. I fully expected the school to release their next statement rife with lines such as, "Well, gaaaaahw-lee! This coach-huntin' is mighty tough!" and "Aw, shucks! The NIT ain't so bad!" For future reference, if I write about anything that is ridiculous or stupid, it will be deemed a WOW! "X".
On the heels of the promise to bring in basketball royalty to replace Cal, names such as Rick Pitino, Bruce Pearl, even Bob Knight surfaced.
Really?! Pitino will leave his thoroughbred team, in a thoroughbred conference, in Louisville where he raises thoroughbreds to come back to the conference from which he bolted four years ago?
Really?! Bruce Pearl will leave a school that's embraced him, the city in which his kids live, the hotbed (you know it) of coeds, and free cut and color whenever he needs one?
Really?! Bob Knight? Really.So the days dragged along. After the first line of defense has fallen, Memphis fans begin to recapture a sense of reason and begin discussing the possibilities of Scott Drew, Reggie Theus and Andy Kennedy.
While the Scott Drew experiment (thankfully) blew over and Kennedy was left in Oxford without a cabbie, the university was silent. Even my contacts in the athletic department were clamming up... Considering the chaos and possibly failures of the past few days, the silence was deafening.
None of the big names were coming. No under-the-radar, mid-major guru was sneaking in. No NBA coach was going to settle into the Tiger post.
Being the head coach of the Memphis Tigers is a hard job. Apart from selling the city and school, you have to sell the conference, which means you have to sell the lack of airtime, highlights and all-around media acknowledgement, much less attention.
When all seemed to be lost and Memphis seemed to be destined to dwell in the bottom of the CUSA barrel, lightning struck on Monday, April 6. Memphis has a coach. It's Josh "Pert Plus" Pastner, the 31 year old assistant of Cal for the previous year and Lute Olsen for six years before that.
This was definitely a WOW! hire and, initially, it seemed to fit my definition of a WOW! hire.
Pastner is a Cal guy. He's 31. He's only been an assistant, whose main jobs have been recruiting and making donut runs.
However, it didn't take long before the college basketball talking heads warmed to this hire.
Pastner is an excellent recruiter. He's assisted under two of the biggest names in the game over the past decade. He's an excellent PR guy. Chicks dig him. The current players like him. He pushes the up-tempo style that Memphis fans have grown to love. He is definitely an up-and-comer in the college game.
It didn't take long for the good to outweigh the bad in the minds of Tiger fans. On that fact alone, the hire has to be considered an initial success. Bringing any positive energy at all to the situation warrants a cautious pat on the back for RC and the Gang.
Nevertheless, my question remains... Why on God's green earth did it take 10 days to make this happen? Pastner was literally packing up his office to follow Cal to Kentucky when RC called him in and offered him the Tiger's head coaching job.
Was it Pastner's age? Was it his lack of head coaching experience? Could it have been that every other direction Memphis began to travel was closed off and they finally dropped to square one and took a leap of faith?
Who knows? The chance of RC and the Gang being transparent about the process is slim. RC may have simply consulted his trusty Magic 8-Ball for the final answer.
Regardless of the fact that the search was sloppy and hurried, the hire took gusto. As I've said before, Cal did so much, not only the Memphis Tigers basketball team, but for the school and the city of Memphis. Placing those reins in an unproven, 31-year old, former assistant coach's hands is either a recipe for disaster or sowing the seeds of an incredible story.
Either way, Memphis has its head coach... and not a moment to soon.
-JB
Another keeper...
According to comments made during an awkward Fox 13 News interview, Tiger forward Angel Garcia will stay at Memphis instead of transferring to the commonwealth, sitting out a year, and being further away from the Plush Club.
-The Pistolier
After seeing the following video, I move to dub him Andre the Garcia.
-JB
After the press conference, Taggart confirmed that he will test the NBA waters. He said that Pastner's hire makes it easier to return to Memphis if he does not make the jump to the NBA.
-The Pistolier
After seeing the following video, I move to dub him Andre the Garcia.
-JB
After the press conference, Taggart confirmed that he will test the NBA waters. He said that Pastner's hire makes it easier to return to Memphis if he does not make the jump to the NBA.
An Impromptu Elevator Interview
Being the Tomb’s only on-campus source, I look for certain situations where I can put my tuition to good use and bring the front line report.
Nice work, JHob. The fact that you got out of that elevator with all your appendages intact is a victory. It's a pretty good sign that PHN speaks favorably of Pert Plus.
-JB
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