Josh Pastner’s big-league Debut

Tuesday, 8:47 p.m., annoyed by the glut of ads on the court at the Kansas-Memphis game. Is it really necessary to have Reese’s peanut butter, Bud Light, GoDaddy.com, SpiderTech.com, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Scottrade, et. al., be such a prominent part of a game between amateur basketball players? …

I’m watching Josh Pastner, boy wonder, coach in his first big time basketball game. It’s against No. 1 Kansas on ESPN. He is smiling a lot. Isn’t that strange?

But maybe he should be.

After KU clocks Josh’s Memphis team, the Tigers will roll to nine straight wins against the most laughable set of opponents this side of Herb Sendek and ASU.

It will be a much-needed break-in period for young Mr. Pastner, 32, who won’t have to worry much until his New Year’s Eve game against loaded in-state rival Tennessee.

Pastner’s story will get a lot of play early this season — AAU traveling team head coach at 16, self-promoting wizard who found himself on Arizona’s bench at the 1997 NCAA championship game — but the reality of Big Time Hoops will soon overcome that gee-whiz approach.

Maybe Pastner doesn’t know an X from an O, but he isn’t likely to get caught short on talented bodies on his bench.

His upside is off the charts. If you can recruit the way Pastner does, at a dreary place like Memphis, it won’t be long until a mainstreet school offers him a better deal.

Pastner has recruited seven of the best high school seniors in America in recent weeks, a class ranked No. 2 in the country by some analysts. It won’t be long untl he has enough talent to hang with Kansas and everybody.

More important this season, a transition in the wake of John Calipari’s departure from Memphis, will be Pastner’s maturation as a call-the-shots head coach. That’s the big unknown about his future.

I’m guessing he’ll have enough talent to overcome his coaching rawness, and especially in the nondescript Conference USA, he’ll get some extended time to learn the coaching business.

He’s no Sean Miller, not yet, but Pastner is nine-years younger than Arizona’s head coach. It will be fun to watch him make his way in a pool of sharks.

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