Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Is Pasternack being recruited by UNLV?

Coach Joe Pasternack is a hot commodity in the NCAA basketball landscape; he was bound to be recruited, but mid-season?

Mark Anderson of The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting that Arizona Wildcats Basketball Assistant Coach Joe Pasternack may be headed to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to be their new Head Coach. If Assistant Coach Joe Pasternack left mid-season, it would be horrible in my opinion, for the team and their current successful roll through the conference.

How could anyone hold it against him or how could not consider the opportunity if it is indeed being offered up to him? That said, All this should be discussed after THIS season ends. If he were to leave, a lot of folks would be sad to see him go, he would be coaching an adversary in recruiting and early season play. The way the NCAA has set up their tournament lately, they love to pit Miller against his former assistant coaches, so be ready for that too.

Anderson points out there is an Arizona connection at UNLV where they idea may be stemming from, “UNLV president Len Jessup is believed to have a significant role in the search. He was at Arizona from 2011 to 2014, serving as dean of the Eller College of Management, before taking over at UNLV.”

Let me be perfectly clear, I haven’t seen anywhere that the Arizona assistant coach is in talks with UNLV or anything confirming Anderson’s claim yet. My reaction is just based on the article posted last night. I have absolutely no idea what coach Pasternack thinks if he wants the job if he has been approached or anything like that. This is pure ‘what if’ speculation.

I think I’m just a little ticked that this ‘didn’t want to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject’ source would shake things up at this crucial point in the season. Is it all about UNLV?

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My question is, why would the school start to put out rumors in their coaching search mid-season? Couldn’t they wait until the end of the season? Is it that the Athletic Director, Tina Kunzer-Murphy, wants to make sure she has a coach in place, so her contract is renewed? Her contract is up this year, and she seems to be doing an excellent job and loves UNLV, so I’m thinking why not keep her, but you never know.

It’s probably more likely the UNLV President Jessup as Anderson says he will be deciding on the AD’s contract.

Kunzer-Murphy wants to bring back UNLV to what they were in their hay day under 1990 NCAA Champion Head Coach Jerry Tarkanian. She is very passionate about the Running Rebels. I heard her speak at an NBA conference, put on by Sports Management World Wide last year. My thought at the time was that UNLV was lucky to have her.

Back to Pasternack. He will probably leave Arizona soon, especially if Arizona makes it to the final four this year, which is a possibility. But this isn’t the NBA, where you fire a coach at the beginning of the season after he took the team to the semi-finals (Kevin McHale in Houston), or mid-season when your team is 30-11 (David Blatt in Cleveland).

This is NCAA basketball where you have young students who are focused on school and winning a title; they have a sports-cologist for a reason for crying out loud. She traveled with the Wildcats on their Northern Cali trip and was seen on the bench during the Stanford game. Great idea, but now, there is, even more, a reason to keep her around the basketball team.

The good news for Arizona Wildcats fans and coach Miller is that the frontrunner for the UNLV job is the current interim head coach, Todd Simon.

Simon is the favorite for the Rebels head coaching position, but I think he may be having issues recruiting. Some the Arizona recruits also have UNLV on their list of offers, and Arizona may win a lot of those battles, especially if they haven’t named their new head coach.

What would happen if Pasternack left now? It might derail the team a bit, with all the injuries, the team just needs some consistency and stability. Byrnes and Miller will have to go out and try to replace Pasternack, and that’s a big distraction, even if they waited, it would still be on their mind. Although, coaches would probably be knocking down the door to get into Arizona.

It would also be such a distraction during all this recruiting to have the Cats assistant coach, who is well-loved and respected by all, to up and leave to a new job. I get it; it’s a head coaching job, who wouldn’t want that?

All this should just be done properly, taking into consideration all the student athletes, and not make it about a battle in recruiting during the end of these athletes senior years.

Chance Comanche‘s mom has a very good idea:

Some fan reaction:

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What do you think? Let us know in the comments below or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

Please stay Joe, at least until the end of the season!

Go Cats!