(05-01-2013 08:34 AM)Tigers2B1 Wrote:  

(05-01-2013 08:27 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(05-01-2013 08:09 AM)TIGERCITY Wrote:  

(04-27-2013 09:46 PM)NJRedMan Wrote:  This conference will have to prove itself in '15 when the final lineup starts. UofL will make the results of next season not really proof of what the conference will be going forward.

Memphis needs to prove what they can do in a conference thats bigger than just one team and a bunch of also-rans. How do they respond to a tougher conference schedule? Can they compete with the likes of UConn and a Cincy team who has been beefed up from years of BE play? You have Temple coming from a legit A-10 that was much tougher than CUSA. Memphis will have to really step up if they expect to be the power of this league. They had more reg season wins than UofL this year but no one thought they were better going into the tourny. They need more quality wins to prove they are legit. We shall see.

While Pastner can recruit with anyone in the country he still needs work as a off the court coach in other respects. As Memphis fans - I think we can see that year over year improvement. It's slow but it's there and it's moving in the right direction. Pastner was thrown cold into one of the more difficult jobs (following Calipari and the loss of almost the entire recruiting class) and more difficult fan bases in the country IMO. On the whole --- I really doubt that Memphis could have done any better than Pastner. I REALLY glad he's at Memphis.

Memphis tried...but everyone they asked prior to Pastner said "thanks but no thanks".

Probably some (if not all) of those other coaches probably would have had more Top 25 wins and more NCAA tourn wins vs what Pastner has after 4 seasons...as it wouldn't take much.

You might not know the back story here. First, the obvious headline story, no one wants to follow a John Calipari. The guy set the standards at Memphis a bit too high for the tastes of most coaches. But that's not the whole story. Calipari absolutely gutted the Memphis program when he left. After recruiting was over, he took almost the entire Memphis recruiting class to Kentucky. So whomever accepted the Memphis job would also have to accept the fact that he would have only 7 players on the team. You can't even practice with 7 players.

On top 25 wins, you're probably right, but only right if those coaches were also playing with the elite players Josh Pastner has recruited. And that, my friend, is not a given.

Good point about coaches not wanting to follow Calipari.

I suspect that part of that is that they don't want to suffer under NCAA penalties that were incurred on his watch.