Buzzing around his office in the Thomas & Mack Center, Josh Pastner exudes a level of energy that almost seems too high to be natural.<\/p>\n
The first-year UNLV basketball coach is smack in the middle of an incredibly busy stretch. His new-look Rebels are five weeks into their eight weeks of summer access workouts. He isn\u2019t installing schemes on the court just yet. He\u2019s \u201cinstilling a mindset\u201d into his team.<\/p>\n
Outside of practices, he\u2019s recruiting all around the valley as tournaments for elite high school players take place. The hustle and bustle of the NBA Summer League is also unfolding right outside of his floor to ceiling windows, and he\u2019s too wired to sit down.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Pastner suggested we meet in his office. A story pitch to sit with him for part of the pro basketball slate and view the action through his eyes simply wouldn\u2019t have worked. Instead, he offers to play film of UNLV\u2019s most recent practice and talk through what he sees.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the thing: I\u2019m not watching the Summer League games,\u201d Pastner explains once he finally takes a seat.<\/p>\n
He muses for a moment about how Las Vegas is currently the center of the basketball universe, primarily because of all the agents who are visiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the players that we\u2019re recruiting have agents \u2014 whether you\u2019re going to be in the transfer portal or you\u2019re coming out of high school,\u201d he says. \u201cSome of the best recruiting is being done right now. You\u2019re still going to deal with high school and grassroots coaches. But the facts are the facts. The agents are going to be involved when you\u2019re dealing with players because money\u2019s involved. You\u2019re paying guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mindset<\/p>\n
The start of summer workouts means Pastner is face-to-face with his recruiting methods.<\/p>\n
Hired to replace Kevin Kruger in <\/a>March<\/a>, Pastner took two months to revamp the roster. Once the recruiting class was complete in May, he said he only signed players he believed would view \u201cwinning a possession as more important than breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n But how does that look in practice?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been good. I think the guys get the message,\u201d Pastner says. \u201cI\u2019ve been very consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n Before he can roll the tape, there\u2019s more context Pastner needs to provide: Offensive systems won\u2019t be learned until school starts in the fall. Right now, he wants the team to grasp something almost intangible.<\/p>\n \u201cI use this phrase a lot: Competitive excellence \u2014 that\u2019s motor,\u201d he says. \u201cI know what it looks like. When you watch our team play, you\u2019ll understand.\u201d<\/p>\n Pastner began a visual education of his standards for his players as soon as their first meeting, which featured examples from all over the sports world.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I talked about sprinting the floor for my bigs, I showed Usain Bolt,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I say sprint the floor or cut, you better do it like Usain Bolt.\u201d<\/p>\n He also showed his team a video of Heather Dorniden falling and still winning the 600-meter race in the 2008 Big Ten Indoor Track Championships, explaining that she never wasted a moment to complain because of her commitment to victory.<\/p>\n \u201cI showed volleyball clips to our guys,\u201d Pastner adds. \u201cThese incredible women athletes, they would dive on the floor head first to get the volleyball.\u201d<\/p>\n He has to catch his breath at this point. He\u2019s doing a full physical illustration:<\/p>\n \u201cOne jumps on the chairs, hits it and saves it. I said, \u2018That\u2019s what I want to see you do on Gucci row.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n How do you instill that level of effort?<\/p>\n \u201cEvery second you\u2019ve got,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s obsessive with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Defense first<\/p>\n As soon as Pastner hits play on the practice film, he notices a problem.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m watching right now to see, are we in the right positioning on the floor?\u201d he says, noting that a guard has the wrong footwork as he defends his teammate at the top of the perimeter.<\/p>\n \u201cThe guy guarding the ball determines the toughness of your team,\u201d Pastner says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be close enough where you can touch his chest.\u201d<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time for a pop quiz. Pastner pauses before half-court action can unfold and asks who\u2019s guarding the basketball. The player defending the ball handler is the wrong answer.<\/p>\n \u201cAll five guys guard the basketball,\u201d he says. \u201cThe floor has to be shrunk. The person with the ball has to see the floor in front of them and see a crowd. And then when the ball is skipped or moved, that\u2019s when we start going in on multiple effort plays.\u201d<\/p>\n This is when Pastner\u2019s first meeting with his players comes into play. He cycles through multiple clips of close-outs, followed by another effort to disrupt the play. If Pastner doesn\u2019t see urgency to get to the next spot, the frustration is evident on his face.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t understand what would cause effort to wax and wane.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery possession is precious. This is my 15th year as a head coach. That\u2019s why, internally, it is hard for me. That\u2019s why I stress. Because I\u2019m like, how?\u2019\u2019 he says, gesturing toward one of the nonsatisfactory clips.<\/p>\n \u2018Crack em\u2019 and get dunked on<\/p>\n When Pastner\u2019s players hit the practice court for the first time, all the team did was work on transition defense without a basketball. But that doesn\u2019t mean he doesn\u2019t want his Rebels to be a dominant rebounding team.<\/p>\n On multiple possessions, he pauses to critique players for their technique on the boards.<\/p>\n \u201cIs this a crack or what is this?\u201d Pastner asks.<\/p>\n He\u2019s used the terminology so many times \u2014 in place of your classic \u201cbox out\u201d \u2014 that it\u2019s finally time to ask where it came from.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Pastner says. \u201cJust gotta crack them. You\u2019ve gotta go crack their legs. Your butt has to hit their thighs.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to being disciplined and aggressive when positioning for rebounds, Pastner\u2019s players are expected to never shy away from attempting a blocked shot.<\/p>\n For the final clip of the day, Pastner shows an easy layup that the nearest defender barely contested.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember saying on this play, \u2018Are you worried about getting dunked on? You better be getting dunked on there,\u2019\u201d Pastner recalls, adding that every player on his roster should be comfortable getting put on a poster.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re worried about being cool, casual or cute, it won\u2019t work for me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt will get you beat.\u201d<\/p>\n Once the big screen is off, the focus returns to his office. Pastner doesn\u2019t have many decorations, but there\u2019s paper all over his desk.<\/p>\n \u201cLess is more, but when we win games \u2026\u201d he says, implying that hardware and victory game balls will soon become his decor.<\/p>\n Based on how seriously he takes a singular summer practice, it\u2019s hard to imagine that he\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buzzing around his office in the Thomas & Mack Center, Josh Pastner exudes a level of energy that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-22492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}