UNLV Basketball Head Coach Josh Pastner Embraces Transfer Portal, Discusses NIL

After firing now-former head coach Kevin Kruger, the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels men’s basketball team made a big splash this offseason when they hired former Georgia Tech head coach turned television analyst Josh Pastner for their head coaching job. So far, this offseason has been viewed as extremely successful for his first year with the program, particularly with what he’s done through the transfer portal.

Recently, Pastner sat down with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and spoke about the current landscape of college basketball and the impact the transfer portal has had on the game. 

“It’s a totally different world,” he said. “Doing television, I can’t tell you how many times talking to different coaches (I’d hear) how much they did not like the landscape. I actually enjoy this.”

He spoke about how in today’s game, everything is so much faster-paced and short-term than it was even a few years ago when he was coaching:

“At the end, they say they’re going somewhere else, and it’s devastating. Or if you win and get the guy, you’re so excited. The difference right now is everything is streamlined. Instead of two to three years, it’s two to three weeks. And it’s so much quicker. … So I love this, because I’m all about efficiency. Less is more.”

He spoke about the experience of missing out on a player you expected to have on your roster and what you have to do to bounce back using a “high-level” player who overslept for a meeting as an example. 

“So we went to somebody else. It wasn’t going to be the right fit. You’ve got to get ready to move on to the next deal… If you have a tough loss, or you’re in a tough stretch, how do you bounce back (from) that quickly? You’ve got to move on to the next thing and not dwell on the past.”

“In the NBA, or pro sports, if a team is offering somebody something, the other team has a chance to match it and they know what they’re offering… (In college sports) you don’t know if you’re out bidding against yourself. You’re doing a best-guess estimate because you don’t know what the other schools are doing… I wish there was more transparency from everybody in college basketball.”

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