UNLV Rebels Athletic Director Speaks About Hiring Men's Basketball Coach Josh Pastner

UNLV Rebels athletic director Erick Harper went out and made a huge splash this offseason when he hired new Runnin' Rebels men's basketball coach Josh Pastner. If you look at what Pastner has already been able to do both in the Las Vegas community and with the Rebels' roster, the school is already reaping the benefits of the big hire.

Harper spoke to UNLV's official website and went into detail about how the hiring took place and why he targeted Pastner to be the guy he wanted to lead the men's basketball team back to glory. He was impressed with Pastner as a leader, a man, and as a coach. While he does say that there were other potential candidates, it seems like Pastner was clearly his top choice if he wanted to return to coaching at UNLV.

In the end, Harper got his man, and the rest is history. How it plays out from here, we will just have to wait and see. So far, so good though. It appears that the Runnin' Rebels are in very good hands and could finally have a chance to return to their days of prominence in the Mountain West.

UNLV Rebels Athletic Director Erick Harper On Hiring Runnin' Rebels Men's Basketball Coach Josh Pastner

"Every athletics director is going to have coaching short lists for their programs, but particularly football and men’s and women’s basketball. And I can tell you that Dan (Mullen) and Josh (Pastner) were on those short lists.

Now, do you put all your eggs in one basket? You can’t. You have to have multiple conversations going simultaneously...

As for Josh, I hosted an assistant coach’s radio show with him when he was a young assistant at the University of Arizona and I was an associate AD there. Through that, I got to know who he was as a person and possible future head coach. The energy, emotion, and passion that you see in Josh today is the same as it was at UA. It was just channeled differently back then because he was working for a college basketball icon [Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson].

Since getting his first head coach job, Josh has proven that his coaching style works — the evidence is in his record. Which is why he was at the top of our wish list."

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