Josh Pastner Update

[Tugg Speedman]

The Arizona Star
Published: 05.04.2008

Opinion by Greg Hansen: There's only one good guy left

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/columnists/237369.php

Olson needs to promote Pastner quickly, or he, too, will leave foundering program
Opinion by Greg Hansen

By process of elimination, Josh Pastner is the last man standing, literally and figuratively, as the only survivor from a turbulent period in which Jim Rosborough, Kevin O'Neill and Miles Simon have been removed from Lute Olson's coaching staff.

Pastner is actively linked to job openings on John Calipari's staff at Memphis and on Trent Johnson's new staff at LSU. When I asked Pastner on Friday evening if he planned to join the exodus, he said, "I'm here now'' and declined to elaborate.

Pastner, who turned down opportunities to coach at Kentucky and Marquette over the last 10 months, is probably waiting to see if he is promoted to associate head coach. If not, if he is bypassed as Olson brings in ex-Sun Devil assistant Russ Pennell and, perhaps, Denver Nuggets assistant Mike Dunlap, Pastner is likely to bolt for LSU or Memphis.
Anyone with less loyalty would already have packed up and left this teetering soap opera behind. As crazy as it sounds, at 30, Pastner has become the most stable figure in the program.

If Olson doesn't act quickly to promote Pastner, it would be a colossal mistake, creating a recruiting mess that would likely doom Arizona into even further slippage than its seventh-place Pac-10 finish this year. (Did I really say "seventh place?'')
In an ugly season in which Olson and O'Neill engaged in spy vs. spy, behind-the-scenes backbiting, Pastner remained neutral, loyal to the program more than to any one man. He is a class act who rose above the pettiness of the 2007-08 fiasco.

[Eye]

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/weiss/

Looks like Memphis is now a possibility.

The MU part of me is disappointed, but not stunned.

The U of A part of me is extremely disappointed, and stunned. A lot of similarities to what's going at Florida State and Penn State in football in my mind.

[Big Papi]

I think Mike Dunlap would have been a great hire as assistant coach.  He had a phenomenal record in division 2 and I believe he almost had the UWM job.  Frankly that would have been a better fit at UWM as Dunlap has a similar style to Pearl.