Tag: Pastner on the hot seat?

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Sports Tiger Blue

#24 SMU 69, Tigers 62

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

“We battled. We competed. But we didn’t execute down the stretch. I was proud of our young men. We came up short.”

Memphis coach Josh Pastner’s opening remarks in tonight’s postgame press conference could be applied to about 10 of his team’s 13 losses to date. Facing the team many still feel is the American Athletic Conference’s top team, the U of M led — thanks to a Jake McDowell layup — with less than nine minutes to play. But then there’s that finishing part. Missed free throws, turnovers, and an ill-advised heave with a minute to go all contributed to the Mustangs securing their second straight season-sweep of the Tigers.

After being held scoreless in the first half, SMU point guard Nic Moore — the front-runner for AAC Player of the Year — scored 12 points in the second half, including a three-pointer as he was falling out of bounds near the end of the shot clock that tied the score at 51. “That ball wound up in Nic’s hands by accident,” said Pastner. “We just didn’t get any breaks. It’s been like that all year long. That kind of got him going. I thought we did a good job on him for the most part.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Ricky Tarrant Jr.


Ricky Tarrant Jr. had a chance to tie the game at 63 with 1:37 to play but missed the first of two free throws. Down 63-62 with a minute to go, freshman guard Jeremiah Martin attempted a three-pointer from the left corner that didn’t so much as hit the rim. Pastner was trying to call timeout as the shot was taken, but no player on the floor saw the signal in time.

Moore converted a floater on the Mustangs’ next possesion to extend the lead to three and Dedric Lawson turned the ball over as he drove into the lane looking for an open teammate. Lawson’s ensuing foul on Sterling Brown at the other end of the floor was ruled intentional, giving SMU both the free throws and possession of the ball. Game over.

“I don’t do moral victories,” said a disconsolate Avery Woodson. “I don’t care if it’s the number-one team in the country and we lose by one. It’s a loss. It’s tough, the ball not bouncing our way all year.” Woodson hit two of six three-pointers and scored eight points, but missed his only two free throws. Overall, the Tigers missed nine of 22 shots from the charity stripe.

Lawson led Memphis with 18 points but, with only four rebounds, saw his streak of games with double-doubles end at five. Senior Shaq Goodwin was limited to 22 minutes by foul trouble and scored only eight points. Tarrant scored 15 and dished out seven assists.

“The law of averages has not worked in our favor,” said Pastner. “Maybe it will Sunday. Hopefully it will in the conference tournament. If the right Memphis team shows up, we can win three games in the conference tournament. We’ve been hot and cold all year. We’ve practiced well; our energy was great. How we practice has not been how we play, and usually that’s a correlation.”

SMU outscored the Tigers 42-22 inside and shot 49 percent for the game, again exposing a Tiger defense that at one point ranked near the top of the AAC.

The Tigers, now 15-13,  will play their home finale — Senior Day — Sunday afternoon against Tulsa. Tip-off at FedExForum is scheduled for 3 p.m. 

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tiger Season Ends With a Whimper

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

“It’s just been one of those years.” — Josh Pastner, February 28, 2015

When you look back at the 1999-2000 Memphis Tigers — the last team to miss both the NCAA and NIT tournaments — it’s striking to consider the talent interim coach Johnny Jones had at his disposal. Three starters for that team — Marcus Moody, Kelly Wise, and Earl Barron — are in the program’s 1,000-point club. Wise and Barron were central figures in the first two seasons with John Calipari at the helm (seasons that ended in the NIT, but at Madison Square Garden, and with the championship trophy in 2002). Barron is currently a member of the Phoenix Suns, for crying out loud.

Yet 1999-2000 — in this part of the college basketball universe — was just one of those years, the Tigers finishing 15-16, a fan base wondering if Larry Finch took a program’s magic with him when he was fired three years earlier.

Josh Pastner

Many Tiger fans will look back to November 12, 2014, and call it the date this season died, when the University of Memphis took the floor for an exhibition game with Christian Brothers University . . . and lost. Sure, Memphis coach Josh Pastner was experimenting with an unfamiliar roster. And sure, the Buccaneers have nothing to lose and a city’s attention to gain whenever they take the floor at FedExForum. This was a lightning strike bound to happen some November. Just happened to be the one when most Memphians got their first look at Kedren Johnson, Trahson Burrell, and Calvin Godfrey. There’s stumbling out of the gate, and then there’s going belly up before ever entering the gate.

This team had its moments. Sweeping the defending national champions for a second straight season — find me another team to have accomplished this — will be the closest thing to a “legacy” the 2014-15 Tigers can claim. But those were two of only three wins (in 15 games) against teams with an RPI among the nation’s top 100. These Tigers never found a competitive punch, not one strong enough to threaten an NCAA tournament team. Not one strong enough, it turns out, to impress the NIT selection committee.

Better days are ahead, surely. There are more than 300 Division I programs that would relish having Austin Nichols as its centerpiece for the 2015-16 season. (This presumes the all-AAC forward returns for his junior season.) There are more than 300 Division I programs that would relish a McDonald’s All-American among its incoming freshman class, as the Tigers have in Dedric Lawson. Imagine Shaq Goodwin playing an entire season with the fire that helped him grab 23 rebounds in the Tigers’ first game against Temple. Imagine Johnson being in, you know, basketball condition.

A long offseason awaits, the program’s longest in 15 years. There is a faction of Tiger fans who believe Pastner is very much a part of the problem, that the still-young coach is unable to match tactics with elite counterparts, that he cannot develop players into a cohesive, threatening unit. If you measure Pastner’s value solely on the past winter, that faction would be correct. Signed through the 2016-17 season, Pastner is likely to be back, and he’ll be answering questions about this long, cold winter on the hottest days in August. There really is no offseason with this program, is there?

“You can get us now,” said Pastner after the Tigers’ final home game last month, “but with our nucleus, and what we have coming in, the future’s extremely bright.” What’s a missed postseason every 15 years?

• On March 8th, Shawne Williams became the eighth former Tiger to play in 300 NBA games. Conference USA’s Freshman of the Year in 2006, Williams is now suiting up with the Detroit Pistons, his seventh pro team since being chosen by the Indiana Pacers with the 17th pick of the 2006 draft. Among the eight Tigers with 300 NBA games under their belts, only two played as many as three seasons of college ball: Elliot Perry (4) and Vincent Askew (3). The others (and the number of seasons they were Tigers): Larry Kenon (1), Penny Hardaway (2), Lorenzen Wright (2), Derrick Rose (1), and Tyreke Evans (1). Rodney Carney played in 299 NBA games and Chris Douglas-Roberts has played in 222, though none since January when the Boston Celtics waived him.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Pastner on the Hot Seat

How many times have you heard somebody say this? “Pastner needs to hire someone to help him with Xs and Os. He can recruit, but he can’t coach.”

That would be Josh Pastner, of course, the University of Memphis’ head basketball coach, whose Tigers fell in the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament and finished at 24-10. Last year’s version of this remark was: “He’s never beaten a Top 25 school.”

Critics aren’t saying that now because Pastner’s team beat five ranked teams this season in 11 tries. And those who say he needs help with Xs and Os would probably find disagreement from Rick Pitino, Mark Few, and Larry Brown — three legendary coaches who Pastner’s team defeated this year.

It’s possible that Pastner can’t coach, but it’s also possible that the four senior guards — the “Four Kings” — were overhyped, not the least by Pastner. It turned out that four kings and two skinny kids down low was not the formula for success fans had hoped for. The truth is, in some games, the kings shot like queens. When they made shots, Memphis beat some very tough teams. When they clanked the rim, they got beaten, sometimes handily.

But this is Memphis, where patience is for losers. Some “Negative Nellies,” as Pastner calls them, are saying it’s time for a coaching change. Really?

Pastner’s winning percentage after five years is around .750. His players graduate and are model citizens. Stories about his generosity and kindness to kids, old folks, the infirm, and the average fan are legion. He’s accessible to the media and gives time to countless charities and nonprofits. He’s a top-ranked recruiter. He doesn’t drink, smoke, or cuss. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better representative for the city and the university.

At this point in his career, he’s a good coach but not yet a great one. Does he have greatness in him? It’s too early to tell — he’s 36 years old — but if you think the university is going to pay millions to buy out Pastner on the chance they might (or might not) hire a better coach, you are more than delusional. World-Wide Wes, anyone?

Besides, I don’t think Pastner’s problem is Xs and Os. I think his problem is that he comes across as your sweet, kinda goofy brother who went off to join Up with People. He lacks gravitas.

His televised pregame speech before the team’s final loss went something like this: “Guys, I’ve been to the Sweet 16, okay? And I want you to experience it, okay? Guys, there’s no feeling like it, okay?” Not exactly Bobby Knight.

Instead of an Xs and Os guy, Pastner needs to hire a communications coach, someone to show him a better way to deliver his message — how to not oversell his talent or his opponent’s, for example — somebody to show him how to motivate and how to keep it real. Too much positivity can create negativity, because people will tune you out.

Pastner is right about one thing: Winning really is hard. And so is patience.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com