Jun
02
2009
Memphis Basketball — Is Josh Pastner a Better Recruiter than Coach Cal?
Posted by admin in 2009 NCAA Recruiting, Memphis Tigers, tags: 2010 nba draft, Doneal Mack, john calipari, Josh Pastner, Latavious Williams, Martin Nglaoro, Memphis Tigers, memphis tigers basketball, Memphis TIgers Recruiting
Josh Pastner, 17th Head Coach at Memphis
In case you missed it, Martin Nglaoro is officially going to be a Memphis Tiger next season. Memphis Roar and True Blue Tigerhad reported he was going to be on campus this past weekend visiting, and heck I even listed him on the 2009 Tigers Recruiting class review…little did we know that the new recruiting master in NCAA basketball, Josh Pastner, already had Ngaloro signed! Of course, with the recent D Rose drama, Coach P could not have picked a better time to release the signing. So the real question is this? How long is it going to take Pastner to pass Calipari in total wins at Memphis???
Pastner vs Calipari…Who’s Better for Memphis?
No doubt, that Coach Cal is a self-contained marketing business. In two months, he has the Kentucky Wildcats in the news every day. That’s what the Kentucky fans and administration want, and that’s what they got. Well, never mind that the state (Kentucky) is going to be broke (really, I’m not kidding), Coach Cal will likely be elected governor there after the Cats have a few 30 win seasons under their belt. But what about Memphis? Well, you could argue that Pastner has already surpassed Calipari in his first season. With his coup-of-a-signing of Latavious Williams (or whatever we’re calling his scholarship agreement), keeping Will Coleman on course, and Nglaoro coming aboard, all of a sudden he has equalled the number of 5 star rivals recruits in one season Coach Cal ever had (we don’t count the now disbanded 2009 Memphis class that would have been his best). And don’t forget…Pastner did this in 8 weeks…many of them with no help! Just think, what can he do with a full recruiting season under his belt?? Not to mention the fact that since he is not followed by 1/2 the southeast on Twitter, doesn’t have multi-million dollar interests not-in-the-gym, and is hungry, how much more effective is he going to be on the recruiting and coaching trails?
2009-10 Memphis Tigers Season
So, what’s in store for next season if you’re a Tiger fan? Well, for one, we still don’t quite know exactly who will be back playing next season. If Taggart is smart, he’ll spend another year at Memphis, work on his skills, and try to get into the first round in the 2010 NBA draft. Of course, he likely has a ton of people trying to convince him that since 2009 is not a super-strong NBA draft year, he’ll have a better chance at going higher and getting more dinero…we’ll just have to wait and see. I think the biggest question for Memphis, is going to be the point guard play. With the bigs that we know will be on the team next season, is Doneal Mack our guy or is the answer with another player? Will Coach P pull out some deritive of the ‘Dribble Drive’ to best use the folks we have, or implement something totally new? Regardless, the Tigers are well-positioned to win Conference USA again, and likely be a Top 20 team by the time March rolls around…a far cry from 8 weeks ago when many thought Memphis should just turn Fed-Ex Forum over to the Grizzlies for next season!
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