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Memphis coach Josh Pastner can recruit
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By Jason King
August 5, 2010
Memphis, TN — He spent nearly all of July on the road, but for Memphis coach Josh Pastner, the hectic summer recruiting period actually began two months ago.
In a hospital room.
Thirty minutes before she gave birth to their first child, Kerri Pastner listened from her bed while her husband made phone calls to prospects. Several of them, actually.
“All of a sudden her contractions started getting pretty serious,” Josh Pastner said, “so she started yelling at me to get off the phone. At that point, she was the head coach and I was the assistant.”
Moments later, daughter Payten Pastner was born without complications. Josh cut the cord and then grabbed his wife’s iPhone to document the occasion.
“When I picked it up she had about five pictures on there,” Pastner said. “By the time I put it down 30 minutes later there were about 400. I started sending them to a bunch of my friends. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
Still, an hour or so later, when Payten fell asleep, Josh did exactly what those who know him would expect. He stepped into the hall, retrieved his phone from his pocket and began calling prospects. Again.
“My wife just gave birth,” Pastner recalls telling them, “but I’m still thinking about you.”
Pastner laughs about it now.
“If the recruits I called that day don’t want to come to Memphis …,” he said. “I mean, Holy Toledo!
What else can I do?”
Just one year into his job, Pastner has already done plenty.
At least when it comes to luring top players to Memphis.
Days after welcoming Payten into the world, Pastner’s other set of “kids” arrived on the Tigers’ campus in June to begin their college career. Memphis’ 2010 recruiting class is ranked No. 2 in the country (behind Kentucky) by Rivals.com – an amazing stat considering Pastner completed the haul just seven months after taking over for John Calipari.
On Monday the Tigers went through their first team workout in preparation for this month’s trip to the Bahamas, where they will play a series of exhibition games that could go a long way toward developing team chemistry.
“I’m excited,” Pastner said Monday. “I’m pumped. It’s already evident that the structure and discipline of a college atmosphere has been good for them.
“I’m the first to admit I don’t know it all. I’ve got a long way to go myself.”
Memphis went 24-10 during Pastner’s first season and finished second in the Conference USA standings with a 13-3 record. The Tigers, though, fell just short of an NCAA tournament bid. Not that anyone was blaming Pastner, considering almost all of Memphis’ anticipated incoming recruits followed Calipari to Kentucky.
This season, though, could be different.
Small forward Wesley Witherspoon, an NBA prospect, returns along with power forward Will Coleman. Angel Garcia is also back after missing last season with an injury.
But the biggest difference-makers could be the Tigers’ newcomers. Freshman Joe Jackson is expected to start in the backcourt with Chris Crawford and Antonio Barton seeing significant time there, as well. Jelan Kendrick and Tarik Black will contend for starting jobs down low.
Will Barton, a guard who was the Tigers’ most high-profile signee, now faces an uncertain future, Fox Sports reported. Barton has not been cleared academically and he must now go through an appeals process to determine whether he can play this season.
Not that Pastner is going to let that get him down. If anything, Pastner’s biggest chore may be managing egos on a team loaded with talent.
“You can only play five at a time,” Pastner said. “We’ve got some good players. Not everyone is going to play every single second. We can’t play mind games. We’ve got to be up front with them and let it all play out by how they perform on the court.”
Pastner said maturity from his younger players will be key.
“It will be an adjustment for a lot of these guys,” he said. “But that’s part of it. One of the reasons they’re here is to be coached and challenged and to have high expectations. Not only on the floor, but off the floor. That’s what we’re here to instill in them: Another level of responsibility and accountability.”
Just as the Tigers are learning on the go, Pastner is making adjustments, too.
At 32 he’s one of the youngest head coaches in Division I basketball. Almost every day he says he meets a challenge he hasn’t faced before. As an assistant under Lute Olson and Calipari, Pastner said he was consumed with the little things that keep a program running smoothly.
“You don’t want to lose the edge that you have as an assistant,” he said. “You want to work like an assistant in recruiting and stay on top of things. But you also want to grow into the head coach’s role.
“I’m continuing to grow. I’m hands-on. I want to be in the grass roots. But I also recognize that I’m overseeing not just the X’s and O’s and recruiting, but the academics, the off-the-court stuff. I mean, some of these guys are coming to me with personal problems. As a CEO, you’re in charge of every decision. I understand that more and more as each day goes by.”
And each day he’s more thankful for the opportunity.
With Kerri and Payten at home, Pastner spent July traveling to tournaments in Indianapolis, Cleveland, Augusta, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Orlando. A few times, usually during one of those long plane flights, he said he couldn’t help but reflect on his recent past.
A little more than a year ago he was the third assistant under Calipari. Now he’s the head coach of a preseason Top 25 team featuring one of the nation’s best recruiting classes.
And a new father.
“I’m thankful every day I wake up,” Pastner said. “I don’t pound my chest and say, ‘I’m the head coach at Memphis.’ To me, this is pretty darn cool. I know it can be taken away at any given time.
“I realize that Memphis basketball was very good before I got here. It was good before I was even born. And it’ll be good long after I leave this earth. Right now I’m just the gatekeeper. I’m taking it all in. I don’t want to be sitting around when I’m 65 and saying, ‘Man, why I didn’t I enjoy the job?’
“I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
• NCAA Basketball News Archive Index:
2010, 2009
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