UNLV completing offer to work with Pastner, sources say
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Jeff Borzello Close Jeff Borzello ESPN Staff Author Basketball recruiting expert. Signed up with ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University of Delaware.Mar 24, 2025, 10:20 PM ET UNLV
- is settling a deal to hire Josh Pastner as the school’s next men’s basketball coach, sources told ESPN.Pastner was expected to consent to a five-year offer,
which could be completed as early as Monday night.He was most recently the head coach at Georgia Tech for seven seasons, leading the Yellow Jackets to the ACC competition champion and an NCAA tournament look in 2021.
He likewise was ACC Coach of the Year in 2017. Before taking over at Tech, Pastner assisted Memphis to four NCAA competitions in 7 seasons as the Tigers’head coach. He won back-to-back Conference USA regular-season titles in 2012 and 2013, finishing an unbeaten conference season and going 31-5 overall in 2013. Pastner has actually been involved in basketball since a young age, publishing a hunting service in Houston at age 13 and coaching one of the teams in his dad’s AAU program at 16. He was a walk-on on Arizona’s national championship team in 1997 and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Lute Olson in 2000. He also spent six seasons as an assistant at Arizona before going to Memphis to spend one season as an assistant coach under John Calipari. When Calipari left for Kentucky, Pastner was promoted to the top job.At UNLV, Pastner
would change Kevin Kruger, who was fired previously this month after four seasons. He went 76-55 throughout his time in Vegas.