UNLV is hiring Josh Pastner as its new men’s basketball coach, according to multiple reports.
The deal is expected to be for five years, per The Las Vegas Review Journal.
The school fired former coach Kevin Kruger four days ago after four seasons with no NCAA Tournament appearances.
“This isn’t a good hire for UNLV, but a tremendous hire for UNLV,” former Arizona and UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood, who has known Pastner since the coach was 17, told the Review Journal. “As most things come down in life with the hiring process, you make sure it’s the right fit, the right time and the right place.
“All of those things measure up for UNLV and Josh. It’s the right time for Josh, who has been out of coaching for a couple years. It’s the right time for UNLV because people are going to want to come to Thomas & Mack Center.”
Pastner, 47, has 276-187 record as a head coach at Memphis and Georgia Tech, with five NCAA Tournament appearances. In recent years he has worked as TV analyst for various networks.
He last coached at Georgia Tech, going 15-18 in his seventh season there before being fired in 2023. He went 109-114 during his tenure there after going 167-73 in seven seasons at Memphis.
Pastner played at Arizona from 1996-2000 and then served as an assistant coach there from 2002-8.
UNLV, which won the NCAA championship in 1990 and lost in the national semifinals in 1991, has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2013.
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