‘I loved my time there’: Rebels’ Pastner ready for return to Memphis

Josh Pastner hasn’t spent much time in Memphis, Tennessee, in the past nine-plus years. The UNLV men’s basketball coach estimates he’s been though the city once or twice in that time.

“For recruiting,” he said.

But Pastner can’t avoid this trip to his former home.

The Rebels (1-2) hit the road for the first time this season when they face Memphis (1-1) on Sunday in a nationally televised nonconference game at FedEx Forum.

“When I saw it on the schedule — because I forgot all about it — then when they told me, ‘You’re going back to Memphis,’ I thought that’s pretty cool,” Pastner said. “But again, my whole focus is I just want us to get better, and my whole thing is how do we try to win the game.”

Pastner spent seven seasons at Memphis from 2009 to 2016 and compiled a 167-73 record, the third-most wins in program history. He led the Tigers to four NCAA Tournament appearances and three straight Conference USA tournament titles (2011-13).

In 2013, Memphis finished 31-5 and went undefeated in Conference USA as Pastner was named the conference’s coach of the year. The Tigers advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to No. 3 seed Michigan State.

But Memphis was unable to sustain that success, and Pastner couldn’t meet the expectations that came with following John Calipari as the Tigers’ coach. The situation became so untenable that in 2016, Memphis agreed to a $1.255 million contract settlement that freed Pastner to leave for Georgia Tech rather than fire him and pay a $10.6 million buyout.

“It’s blues and barbecue and basketball there,” Pastner said. “There was a lot of intensity at the job, but I loved my time there and it was a great experience. … That experience will help me prepare for the experience here as we continue to move forward.”

UNLV is coming off a 102-93 home loss to Montana on Tuesday that set off alarm bells. The Rebels struggled to get stops on defense and didn’t show the toughness that Pastner believes is a hallmark of his teams.

“That’s what makes me most frustrated,” he said. “You can’t be cool, casual or cute and play for me. It just doesn’t work. I felt in some areas in our homestand sometimes we were tough. But other times, we had some coolness, casual and cuteness. And we’ve got to get that out of them.”

Pastner noted that most of the focus in practice following UNLV’s 77-62 exhibition loss to Washington on Oct. 19 was playing faster on the offensive end. The Rebels averaged 91.7 points per game on their three-game homestand.

The trade-off is they are allowing 85.7 points, which ranks 321st out of 355 Division I teams. Emmanuel Stephen, a transfer from Arizona, remains injured and UNLV has tried to adjust without the 7-foot rim protector.

“You look at our pace and our efficiency and how we move the ball … and how quickly we play, we cleaned that up and I’m really proud of that part of that,” Pastner said. “We got a return of investment on that on how we’ve played offensively, but it hurt us defensively. And that’s on me because I didn’t spend enough time in practice on that. We now have to catch our defense up to our offense and bridge the gap on that.”

Memphis, under eighth-year coach Penny Hardaway, lost 83-77 on Tuesday at Ole Miss. The Tigers feature five players averaging double figures in points led by senior point guard Dug McDaniel (13.0 ppg).

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on X.