No such luck for UK: Josh Pastner to be named Memphis head coach

DETROIT — Josh Pastner will be introduced as the next Memphis coach, a source close to the program told CBSSports.com on Monday.

An news conference is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday.

Pastner is known as an elite recruiter from his time at Arizona, where he played for and assisted Lute Olson before joining John Calipari’s staff last offseason. This is his first head coaching job.

Like I said, UK would be on borrowed time every moment they had Josh Pastner as an assistant coach. In a move that, frankly, I did not anticipate, Josh Pastner will stay in Memphis after all, but as head coach of the Tigers.

The immediate concern for UK is that Pastner is sure to compete with John Calipari for the current Memphis commitments as well as any unsigned players in 2009. Pastner is a good enough recruiter that I have to think that guys like John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Xavier Henry will at least think about Memphis, although I don’t think hiring Pastner will be enough to lure them.

However, the long term concern is that UK loses out on having Pastner on the recruiting trail, even if it was only going to be for one year. You want your head coach to have a big coaching tree, but I wish Josh would have branced out after another year or two.