New UNLV Basketball Coach Josh Pastner Makes Pit Stop At Aviators Game On Circuit To Sell Runnin’ Rebels Hoops To Vegas Market
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Well, that was a first.
To give you a sense of what Josh Pastner will do to sell the UNLV men’s basketball team to the Las Vegas market, he threw the first pitch before Thursday’s Las Vegas Aviators baseball game.
But it was no baseball that he tossed.
He threw a basketball as the first pitch.
There is no limit to this guy’s enthusiasm to ingratiate himself into the Las Vegas sports scene.
Pastner chatted with a TV reporter before the first pitch, threw the basketball toward home plate (the orange ball nearly made it to the dish) and then exchanged pleasantries with Aviators manager Fran Riordan before the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate played the Oklahoma City Comets in a Pacific Coast League game
“Come on by, please,” Pastner told Riordan. “I’d love to see you.”
It’s been only two months and three days since UNLV Athletics Director Erick Harper introduced Pastner at Thomas and Mack Center.
Pastner’s contract was a five-year deal for $4.8 million, or an average of $960,000 a season for each of the five years.
LVSportsBiz.com chatted with the 47-year-old former Memphis and Georgia Tech head coach, who is a high-energy, talkative personality.
“I’ve got to be all over the city,” Pastner said. “Vegas is a 24/7 city and the head coach has to be 24/7.”
He called the once-great UNLV basketball program “a sleeping giant” and repeated that the men’s hoops team is the city’s team.
“It’s not my program,” Pastner said. “It’s the alumni’s program. It’s the students’ program. It’s the city’s program.”
Pastner replaces the likable Kevin Kruger, a former UNLV point guard who was fired by Harper after he failed to make the NCAA tournament for fourth consecutive seasons despite a 76-55 record during his four-year run.
Pastner was doing media work when Harper hired him — just like UNLV’s new football head coach, Dan Mullen , who was doing college football commentary for ESPN when he was hired by Harper after former UNLV coach Barry Odom left for Purdue. Pastner said he was always interested in returning to coach college hoops while he was working in the media last season.
For the record, Oklahoma City defeated the Aviators, 9-3. The Aviators has won 33 and lost 20, with several of their players sent to the Athletics. The A’s hope to open a new $1.75 billion stadium on the Strip in 2028 and expect to hold a groundbreaking in late June.
PSA
