Former Arizona player and assistant coach Josh Pastner is the second-youngest head coach in college basketball at 33 years old (US Presswire photo/Nelson Chenault)

What good is Josh Pastner for the Arizona basketball program? Who did he recruit: Fendi Onobun? Mohamed Tangara? If he was so good why did Kevin O’Neill never seek his advice during a game? Why did former UA athletic director Jim Livengood never seriously consider him as a permanent replacement for his mentor Lute Olson?

All valid viewpoints of Pastner, now the head coach at Memphis, which plays Arizona Friday in the first round of the NCAA West Regional in Tulsa.

Chances are these comments — they have been said on radio talk shows and written in blog comments — are made by people who have never met him. They are said and written because they see Pastner as someone who is no longer a priority for Arizona’s basketball program, which is now in the very good hands of Sean Miller.

If Pastner was good enough, he’d still be at Arizona.

I’ve heard that comment more than once.

After the Tim Floyd fiasco, when Floyd basically used Livengood and Arizona for contract leverage with USC, I remember communicating with Pastner via text message. I published the site UAHoopsCoach.com (now WildAboutAZCats.com) at the time and my focus was getting information about who Livengood might consider next.

I remember Pastner writing back that it would be an honor to be mentioned as a possibility. My first thought was, “Are you serious?” This is not because I didn’t think Pastner was capable. It’s because Pastner, to me, is always that young exuberant guy on the Arizona bench, waving his towel, jumping up and down, clapping, and slapping guys on their posterior. I was not sure if people would take Pastner seriously, although he had a lot to do with Mike Bibby‘s maturity and development when they were freshmen in 1996-97.

I covered Pastner and the national championship team that season for the Arizona Daily Star. One of my most vivid memories after Arizona won the Final Four game against North Carolina was the door opening to the locker room and the first player standing there was Pastner.

He did not play a minute in the game. “What do you need to know Javier?” Pastner said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You need an interview? I’m right here.”

It donned on me that, yes, I could use a comment from Pastner about working on Bibby’s jumper before the game. The freshman sensation had 20 points on 7 of 18 shooting from the field, including 6 of 11 from three-point range. The minute I started talking to Pastner, three or more reporters crowded around and scribbled on their notepads.

Here was Pastner, a walk-on no less, getting attention from the national media following a monumental game for the Arizona program. The reporters were well aware of Pastner’s goal at the time to become a coach like Olson, his idol and mentor. They knew of his AAU coaching past (despite being 18 at the time) and how his father, Hal Pastner, was an esteemed AAU organizer in Houston.

And, of course, the younger Pastner’s bubbly personality could win over Simon Cowell.

When Josh Pastner coached under Olson from 2002-2008 it became obvious to McKale insiders that in order for him to ever coach at Arizona, he must try leading another program first. The prevailing thought was Pastner must mature and become more worldly in his coaching endeavors before remotely thinking about a head coaching opportunity with the Wildcats.

Before John Calipari provided the young coach that opportunity, hiring him as his lead assistant coach for the 2008-09 season at Memphis, Pastner made a lasting impression on my life in a couple of ways. Nobody had to convince me that Pastner would be mature enough someday to lead his own program into the NCAA tournament, which he will do for the first time Friday against his alma mater.

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Former Arizona basketball player and assistant coach Josh Pastner, now head coach at Memphis, will likely get hundreds of messages from former Arizona teammates and Wildcat supporters this week (US Presswire photo/Nelson Chenault)

Former Arizona assistant coach Jim Rosborough, who coached Josh Pastner and later coached with him on Lute Olson‘s staff, knows all about the effervescent, popular young leader of the Memphis basketball program.

What he knows concerns him about Pastner and the job he must undertake Friday against his alma mater in the NCAA Tournament West Regional first-round game in Tulsa.

“(The selection) was kind of dirty to Josh,” Rosborough told me. “From his standpoint, he has to be really protective of his time. Everybody will want to talk to him.

“He may or may not say no. Knowing him, he may try to talk, but he has to realize how important it is to be prepared for a game like this. When I first saw Arizona vs. Memphis on the screen, my first thought was Josh would get calls and texts from everyone.”

Pastner’s former UA teammate Eugene Edgerson Tweeted that he has already tried to call Pastner. He messaged Miles Simon on Twitter: “How bad do you think Josh wants to win his tourney (game) against us?”

Another former UA teammate John Ash, a walk-on like Pastner when they were with the Wildcats 15 years ago, sent the Memphis coach a text message after the the selection was announced Sunday on CBS. Jawann McClellan, a Houston native like Pastner, who played for Pastner at Arizona, texted him Saturday night to congratulate him for winning the Conference USA tournament.

That is just a very small sample.

“I sent him a text but I won’t call him,” said Ash, who now works in commercial real estate in Tucson. “Like with some of my NBA friends (Richard Jefferson among them), I wait until the off-season to give them a call.

“But I don’t think any distraction will be a concern for Josh. I am pretty close to Josh. He is so disciplined and on target. No doubt in my mind that all that (distraction) will be secondary. He will go into the game with precision and he will push his guys the right way.”

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Note: This is an interview Javier Morales conducted with Memphis coach Josh Pastner in 2009 at our partner site WILDABOUTAZCATS.com after he was hired to replace John Calipari. Pastner is a UA graduate who played and served as an assistant coach for the Wildcats. He will coach against his alma mater in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this week.

Former Arizona player and assistant coach Josh Pastner, now head coach at Memphis, will coach against the Wildcats in the NCAA tourney (US Presswire photo/Chuck Cook)

The lasting image in my mind about Josh Pastner was walking into McKale Center after 8 p.m. once and seeing only two people on the court working: Pastner and Mike Bibby. Working is the appropriate word. Pastner was Bibby’s teammate but he was coaching Bibby on his jump shot as vociferous as Lute Olson would in practice.

And Bibby listened.

When the UA toured Australia after it won the NCAA title in 1997, I recall Pastner reminding Bibby in a hotel lobby to phone his mom to let her know how he was doing. Virginia Bibby was at every one of her son’s games in high school and at the UA until that trip. I remember Bibby being concerned about how expensive the call would be from a pay phone.

Times have changed over the last 12 years, but the one constant has been Pastner’s desire to coach and be a guiding force for young, talented basketball players.

Bibby, who recently completed his 11th season in the NBA, could probably buy that hotel in Australia if he wanted. Pastner is now challenged to coach 13 players at one time, at Memphis, instead of only one-on-one sessions on the court or the video room.

More than that, Pastner must be the figurehead for a program that only two years ago was in the NCAA title game with the nation’s most popular coach (love or hate him) John Calipari. He will have to bear the brunt of whatever penalty the NCAA levies against Memphis in the wake of alleged improprieties involving, reportedly, Derrick Rose and his SAT before Rose enrolled at Memphis.

Now that Pastner, 31, is married, he has a family life to juggle along with his unending coaching duties, ranging from recruiting to public functions. I was able to catch Pastner late at night recently after one of his busy days for our latest Q&A session (Note: Per NCAA rules, Pastner could not discuss the recruitment of Latavious Williams — who has committed but is not signed for next season — and Will Barton — a five-star Class of 2010 recruit who committed to Memphis this week).

Q: Has the reality of being a Division I coach sunk in yet?
PASTNER: Let me just say that I have enjoyed every day that I have been the head coach. I’m not taking anything for granted. I know the responsibilities that come with it. Every time I get up in the morning, I look at being alive as a gift. I look at coaching the same way.

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