For the second time this season, the Memphis Tigers mens basketball team will welcome back a former head coach to FedExForum when they tipoff against Josh Pastner and UNLV on Sunday afternoon.
Pastner replaced John Calipari, who returned with his Arkansas Razorbacks earlier this year for the Hoops for St. Jude Tipoff Classic exhibition game, as head coach of the mens basketball team in 2009. From 2009 to 2016, Pastner accumulated a 167-73 record, the third most wins of any coach in program history, as well as four NCAA tournament appearances and two NCAA tournament wins before leaving for Georgia Tech after missing the postseason in his final two unceremonious seasons.
Right now though, Pastner is only focused on improving his Runnin’ Rebels, who have gotten off to an injury riddled 1-2 start to the season.
“I haven’t even thought about (returning to Memphis). All I care about is how do we get UNLV basketball better? Sunday, when the ball tips, I just want to win the game and we just got to get better. We got to improve,” Pastner said after a 102-93 home loss to Montana on Tuesday. “That’s the only thing I’m thinking about right now.”
Similar to Memphis, who replaced everyone from last season’s roster and has a team of 15 new players, UNLV only brought back one player from last season’s team, sophomore Jacob Bannarbie, who averaged a meager 3.8 minutes per game last season.
It’s no surprise then that Memphis Head Coach Penny Hardaway finds himself in a similar predicament to Pastner, as the Tigers are entering the contest off of a loss, an 83-77 defeat in Oxford to SEC rival Ole Miss.
“I think it’s something to build on,” Hardaway said after the loss to Ole Miss. “Unfortunately for us, in this non-conference is where we make our noise. So it’s got to happen sooner than later.”
To Hardaway’s point, the schedule is about to pick up precipitously, with the Tigers projected to lose five of their next eight games, including a matchup with the No. 2 team in the nation, the Purdue Boilermakers, the next game after UNLV.
If this entirely new team does not gel quickly, the season could start to spiral just as it began.
Both Memphis coaches, one of the past and the one of the present, are looking for a bounce back with new rosters after rocky starts to the year, but only one coach will get what they are searching for.
Hardaway’s Tigers and Pastner’s Runnin’ Rebels will square off at 4 p.m. on Sunday at FedExForum.
