Pastner's arrival generates optimism among UNLV faithful

LAS VEGAS — Rollie Massimino.

Tim Grgurich.

Cleveland Edwards and Howie Landa.

Bill Bayno.

Max Good.

Charlie Spoonhour.

Jay Spoonhour.

Lon Kruger.

Dave Rice.

Todd Simon.

Marvin Menzies.

T.J. Otzelberger.

Kevin Kruger.

And now, Josh Pastner.

All have been UNLV’s head men’s basketball coach since the university moved on from Jerry Tarkanian in 1992. The closest the school has come to replicating Tark’s success was when Lon Kruger took the Runnin’ Rebels to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2007. The last year the program won a game in the tourney was 2008. The last NCAA appearance came in 2013.

Pastner, the 47-year-old son of a Houston, Texas basketball coach and promoter who had some success as the head man at Memphis and Georgia Tech, will be asked to not only make UNLV relevant again in its own city, but to get back to the NCAAs and have success in March. He’s been sitting in a television studio the last two years watching other coaches lose their job or parlay their success into a better position.

Sound familiar?

It should. Athletic director Erick Harper is using the same blueprint for basketball that he did in football when he hired Dan Mullen, the former Mississippi State and Florida head coach to leave the studio and replace Barry Odom back in December. We won’t know until the football season begins in the fall as to whether he got it right. And we won’t know until November if Harper got the hiring of Pastner right.

Having been around for each of the aforementioned coaching changes over the decades here, I’m cautiously optimistic Harper will have gotten it right this time. Pastner is a high-energy guy and he’s going to be out front selling the program to anyone who will listen.

“I was looking for a tireless recruiter, someone who has had Division I head coaching experience and success, someone who will connect with the community and be committed to UNLV long-term,” Harper said of his decision to hire Pastner, who had known from his time at Arizona.

Pastner who was hired Tuesday and introduced Wednesday morning at the Thomas & Mack Center as the latest UNLV basketball coach, said all the right things. Among his comments were how this was his “dream job” and how he respects and admires the tradition of the Runnin’ Rebels and yada yada yada. He’ll try and placate the remaining Tark loyalists while at the same time try and get a community that spends its money on the Golden Knights, the Aces of the WNBA and, to a degree, the Raiders, to come back to the Mack and fill those thousands of empty red seats.

This isn’t just about me and a couple of players,” Pastner said. “This is the entire city getting involved.”

Yes, Las Vegas is a far different city than when Pastner’s dad Hal was running his summer high school basketball tournaments at Durango High School and Josh was learning the game from Lute Olson and John Calipari. It’s a pro sports town now and for UNLV to regain a foothold and the heartstrings of the community, it needs to win bigger than it had under Kevin Kruger.

And in today’s college basketball world, that is going to take a lot of money.

The school’s NIL collective is going to receive a nice boost this fall to the tune of $1 million by participating in the Players Era event at the MGM Grand Garden. That should buy them a point guard and perhaps a power forward, maybe someone who can drill 3-pointers to keep that streak alive of 1,260 consecutive games with a trey that goes back to 1986.

Bill Paulos, the local businessman who oversees the “Friends of UNILV” collective, is a good man who is passionate about his alma mater. He was around for the salad days of Tarkanian and he has felt the frustration of the decades basketball has struggled since Tark moved on. He will help Pastner get the money to bring players into the Scarlet and Gray fold.

To get where it wants to go, UNILV will likely need to get to somewhere between $3 million and $4 million in the coming months. The collectives that can raise the funds stand the better chance of success. It may not be fair. It may not be right. But like it or not, that’s the state of the game these days. Those that can’t compete financially run the risk of downgrading to Division III, which is what Saint Francis University of Loretto, Pa. recently did even though it competed in this year’s NCAA Tournament as a D-I institution.

Pastner re-enters the game at a difficult time. When the transfer portal opened for business Monday, more than 700 players opted for a change of scene, all looking to cash in. That number was pushing 1,000 24 hours later. Among those were Rebels Dedan Thomas Jr., Rob Whaley and Isaiah Cottrell.

The huge number in the portal could be a good thing for UNLV as Pastner will essentially have to build a roster from scratch and getting experienced players can expedite the chance for early success. He won’t have the luxury of a honeymoon or grace period. And while he does have a five-year contract worth $4.8 million ($500,000 for the upcoming 2025-26 season), he knows he better produce now, not four or five years from now.

“We want to win now,” Pastner said. “I fully understand what sitting in this chair means.”

He said while serving as a studio analyst for ESPN the last two years, it allowed him time for some self reflection and he believes he’ll be a better coach this time around. His plan is to play an up-tempo style of offensive basketball while being sound and versatile defensively. He’ll won’t have to deal with matching wits with Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and some of the other top ACC coaches and players from his time at Georgia Tech as he’ll go head-to-head with the likes of San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher, Boise State’s Leon Rice and Nevada’s Steve Alford.

But even going against those programs, Pastner will need players. In order to do that, he’s going to need money. Yes, there’s more than 1,000 players in the portal to choose from and he only needs 10 or so. So the odds are pretty good he can get a competitive roster together in short order.

However, building a culture that is successful and lasting doesn’t happen overnight. Pastner admits as much and he said laying a solid foundation is a priority for him. How long it takes him will likely depend how quickly he can get moving on hiring a staff, getting commitments from players and finding the money to close the deal for them.

I saw a lot of old faces from the Tarkanian era and over the decades Wednesday that still supported the program. They seemed to be willing to give Pastner a chance to prove he’s more than just words. But the real proof will come in November. Can he win? Can he get people excited about Rebel basketball again? Can he fill those thousands of empty seats in the Thomas & Mack?

We won’t have to wait long to find out. November’s not that far away.