Pastner looks to get off to fast start

LAS VEGAS — The college basketball season officially tipped off Monday, headed by a blockbuster doubleheader at T-Mobile Arena which saw national champion Florida facing Arizona and Brigham Young taking on Villanova.

A little over a mile east at the Thomas & Mack Center, Josh Pastner was putting the final touches on UNLV’s preparation for its opener Tuesday against Tennessee-Martin. While not as sexy as the T-Mobile twinbill, the long-suffering fan base of the Runnin’ Rebels are anxiously awaiting the start of the Pastner Era.

Pastner, who played under and coached for Lute Olson at Arizona and has a resume which includes stops at Memphis and Georgia Tech, has vowed to bring success back to UNLV. That means compete for the Mountain West title, win big enough to get into the NCAA Tournament and try to make a run in March.

He has hit the ground running since his hire back in late March. He hustled to put a roster together, hire a staff that can recruit during this challenging age of Name, Image and Likeness and got the school’s NIL collective on firmer footing, going out into the community and talking up the program in the hopes of raising more working capital.

Will it work? It starts Tuesday.

“The most challenging part of the job is we have 13 new players. Do we have everything in?” he said. “First and foremost, you’ve got to have chemistry. The amount of time we spent off the court is probably more than in any year of my career because everybody was new and guys had to know each other off the court.”

 Kevin Kruger, Pastner’s predecessor, won during his time at UNLV. Unfortunately for Kruger, he didn’t win often enough and it ultimately cost him his job. The Rebels went 18-15 and did not make it into the postseason. In fact, UNLV’s last NCAA Tournament appearance was in 2013. The team’s last NCAA tourney win was in 2008 when Kevin Kruger’s dad Lon was the coach.
That’s a big gap when it comes too success for a program that has a national championship and four trips to the Final Four as part of its history.

For its part, the school is trying to remain tied to that history. The court, which is already dedicated to Hall of Fame coach Jerry Tarkanian, is being re-dedicated to include his wife Lois, who was  an instrumental force behind the scenes during Tark’s tenure. Pastner also brought back legendary Rebel Stacey Augmon as a member of his staff as the team’s director of community engagement and has two other former Rebels, Justin Hawkins and Anthony Marshall, on the staff too.

Pastner said when he was hired he was going to embrace the program’s history. Now it’s time to build upon it. His honeymoon will be a brief one. The Thomas & Mack has resembled a ghost town for most of the past few years. UNLV’s athletic department needs to make money off men’s basketball, not lose money.

That means winning in order for people to come back. Discounted tickets, free food and T-shirts won’t get it done. And Pastner knows he doesn’t have three to five years in order to accomplish the goal.

It’s a lot of pressure. The run-up to Tuesday’s opener has seen a rash of injuries to the roster and it has tested the depth. Junior guard Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn, who transferred from Tennessee, looked good inn the two exhibition games, a loss to Washington and a lopsided win over Lincoln (Calif.). appears to be someone Pastner can trust to score. Forward Naas Cunningham, a transfer from Alabama, also appears to be capable of scoring as well based on the two exhibitions. And Walter Brown, a 6-foot-5 forward from New Zealand, can score and rebound.

Normally, it might take a while for a new roster to gel. But Pastner doesn’t have time to wait. He has to get these guys on the same page right away and that’s going to be a challenge. How quickly they manage to do that will likely determine the level of success this team enjoys.

“We’re getting more comfortable with each other every day,” Cunningham said. “We all get along, on and off the court.”

Brown, who probably had the biggest adjustment to make culturally speaking coming from Christchurch to Las Vegas, said while the lifestyle may be different from what he’s accustomed to, in the end, it’s about basketball and fitting in with his teammates.

“The chemistry is there but it’s also evolving,” said Brown, who played for former Rebels star Mark Dickel back home and who recommended Brown to Pastner. “I hope my energy rubs off on my teammates and gets the fans excited.”

Pastner said on the day he was hired that his team would play with great energy and effort. He repeated that Monday. Because as every coach loves to say, effort is the one thing a team can control.

“We’re going to play downhill and play with pace,” he said. “I gave my word that we would play with competitive excellence. We will compete. That is the standard. Nothing is more important to me. There’s no guarantee we’ll win the game but everyone knows this team will play with appreciation, not entitlement.

“The second thing is we’re going to be the Runnin’ Rebels. That doesn’t mean we’re going to play wild and crazy basketball. We still have to be fundamentally sound. But we have to play with great pace. It means how we cut. How we move the ball. All the things that fans want to see. I gave my word on that and I’m going to stand by that.”