After sleeping on it, here are some things I gleaned after reading more on Pastner:
1. Took over a Memphis program, that while it was winning big under Calipari, was also in shambles behind the scenes. Not only did he win 25+ games his first 5 years, he cleaned up the mess Calipari left behind.
2. Was considered one of the brightest young basketball minds at one point. A lot of people considered him a basketball coaching prodigy. Coached AAU ball while still in high school...coached Emeka Okafor! Was a walk-on at Arizona, and even then he was helping the coaching staff....and quite a few thought of him as a future head coach back then.
3. Graduated college in 2.5 years, has a masters, and was working on his doctorate (whether he finished that is not clear).
4. Universally regarded is a really good recruiter on national level. At one time, was considered an elite recruiter on a national level.
5. Coached under Lute Olson and Calipari.
Maybe Pastner is what GT needs right now. A coach that's a bit broken in some respects, but still has a high ceiling. Afterall, isn't that how you would describe GT basketball right now? Had this hire happened just 3 years ago, Pastner would have been a coup and GT would have exulted Bobinski. But the reality is, GT was always going to get the imperfect coach regardless of if it was Capel (Oklahoma questions), Drew (inexperience in this region), Kelsey (too green and not enough success at a lower level), Laranaga (no college experience). Drew was the "cleanest" hire of the bunch, even then we were split on his fit for GT.
It's a situation where both coach and school need each other. In Pastner, we get a guy with a tremendous upside, but has issues that he needs to work through. Remember, Pastner is still considered a young coach. He's accomplished things in his career most coaches will never accomplish. The belief is a change of scenery and learning from his mistakes at Memphis will help him move forward into an even better coach at GT.
Hopefully, it works out the way both parties expect.
