(03-30-2015 01:41 PM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 10:07 AM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 09:40 AM)thememphisshow Wrote:  Most fans who are critical of Josh have become fed up with:

1). Getting blown out on National TV MULTIPLE times
2). Josh's teams getting punked-out against physical teams
3). Josh's teams having no sense of mental toughness.
4). Blaming the players
5). Underachieving with good talent.
6). Lack of an EFFECTIVE OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SYSTEM!

Those who are critical of Josh are not "crazy". We do have valid reasons for being critical. Most of us were huge Josh supporters at some point but have lost faith in CJP as a coach over the years because of the above reasons.

All of what you say may be true, but calling for his firing this year is pointless and counterproductive. He WON"T be fired until after NEXT season, if ever. Besides the huge buyout involved, Bowen and our boosters have to consider the following:

Yes, but also consider:

(1) He inherited a gutted mess of a program left behind by Calipari (who took the best players to Kentucky with him), and prevented a disaster
(2) This year will make six winning seasons in a row (despite many injuries)
(3) Pastner is among the Top 5 winningest coaches under 40 in Division 1 (http://athlonsports.com/college-basketba...s-under-40 )
(4) He is an excellent recruiter
(5) His players graduate and stay out of trouble
(6) Due to experience gained at our expense, he is a better coach than when we hired him and gets better every year
(6) We don't have to worry about him cheating or embarrasing the university. He doesn't even cuss.

Firing Josh this year would make it extremely difficult to ever hire a decent replacement at an affordable salary.

Can 1,4 and 6 all be true for the same person...

The program was gutted by previous coach but it had a better record than this year.

If he is a great recruiter he should have more talent than that gutted year and if he is a better coach than when he started he should have won more games with more talent.

Pastner's teams improved every season his first 4 seasons. His team was 1 win away last year (Houston, UConn, Virginia) from improving again.

He had a bad finish last year and a bad year this year. He is undoubtedly a better coach now than when we hired him, but he hit a wall the last month of last season. This year was a perfect year to showcase his coaching ability without very good talent and he didn't do a very good job.

Quote:If he is a great recruiter he should have more talent than that gutted year

This makes no sense at all. There is a list of coaches a mile long that go 1 year in 6 having less talent and/or a down year. The problem with Pastner is that he didn't make the Sweet 16 last year. A Sweet 16 last year would have lead to better recruiting this year and next year. Also, as stated, he seemed to hit a wall at the end of last year and stopped improving as a bench coach.