FROM NECESSARY ROUGHNESS

After reading this article in the New York Times about new Memphis coach Josh Pastner, I realized that maybe Memphis will not fall out of the elite class of basketball programs with the departure of John Calipari. Pastner is a 31 years young coach who is really easy to root for. He is already doing a great recruiting job and proving to be a solid coach as well. Maybe with time he develop into something big, as his predecessor did before him. Pastner already has a head start on his predecessor with a great foundation at Memphis that Coach Calipari left behind (yes several players followed Calipari to Kentucky, but the foundation of winning along with some talent remains).

Pastner seems to have a personality that really makes for a coach players would love to play for. Hopefully his soft side, as this article displays, won't result in a "weak" coach who players do not respond to over time.

As Coach Calipari and Coach Pitino now square off as "teacher vs. student" maybe a Coach Calipari and Coach Pastner match up isn't too far behind either.

FROM NECESSARY ROUGHNESS