NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2009 offseason

By Joey Loose | Jun 14, 2021

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Head coach Tony Bennett of the Virginia Cavaliers cuts down the net after his teams 85-77 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

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NCAA Basketball Josh Pastner, head coach of the Memphis Tigers (Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images) /

7. Josh Pastner (Memphis)

Simply put, this was a tough act to follow. John Calipari departed Memphis for Kentucky, having led Memphis to a national title game appearance just a year earlier. The Tigers were extremely successful, having won at least 33 games for four straight seasons, and completely dominating Conference USA in the process. With Calipari gone, the program turned towards one of the members of his coaching staff to run the torch.

Josh Pastner knew a lot about success already. He had played collegiately for Lute Olson and Arizona, playing sparingly as a freshman on the 1997 championship team. He joined the coaching staff a few years after graduation, serving with Olson for the last five years of his career. He joined Calipari’s staff at Memphis in 2008, spending a single season with the Tigers before being promoted to the top spot.

With all due respect, Pastner wasn’t going to revolutionize the college basketball world like Calipari had, but he was still solid with the Tigers. They were still dominant in the C-USA (before joining the AAC in 2013), and Pastner led them to four NCAA Tournaments. He departed for Georgia Tech in 2016, right around when Memphis was hitting a downturn. Still, Pastner was successful; he just had one of the toughest acts to follow.

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