Garson, Wilkins, and Hawkins: A look at Josh Pastner's Assistant coaches

As Josh Pastner prepares for his first season as the head coach at UNLV, he'll need his assistant coaches to perform their roles effectively to turn the runnin' rebels into a successful program. Therefore, fans and readers should know about his assistants, too. Let's take a look at Scott Garson, Anthony Wilkins, and Justin Hawkins and see what they bring to the table.

Scott Garson:

Garson was hired as UNLV's associate head coach in April 2025. He spent the last seven seasons at Santa Clara as an assistant coach. Garson has been a college basketball coach for close to 30 years. Notably, he was the head coach at the College of Idaho from 2013-2018, compiling a 129-42 record with three conference championships and a Final Four appearance.

In 2015, Garson received the Red Auerbach National Coach of the Year Award.

Garson went on to help Santa Clara achieve seven straight winning seasons and multiple postseason berths.

Garson coached under Ben Howland at UCLA too, helping the Bruins reach three Final Fours and developing 16 NBA players.

He was also employed at Utah under head coach Rick Majerus.

Anthony Wilkins:

This will be Wilkins' first season at UNLV.

He joins the Runnin' Rebels after coaching at UTRGV (Texas-Rio Grande Valley) where he served as an assistant head coach in the 2024-25 season.  

Before that, Wilkins was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt for one year after five seasons with Pastner at Georgia Tech, where he served as an assistant coach for four seasons before a promotion to associate head coach in 2022-23.

At Georgia Tech, his fingerprints were all over player development, as he helped future NBA players Jose Alvarado and Moses Wright improve.

He helped the Yellow Jackets capture the ACC Championship in 2021, securing a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Wilkins also coached at Tulane for five seasons, starting as the director of basketball operations before a promotion to assistant coach after one year.

He began his coaching career at Kent State, his alma mater.

Justin Hawkins:

Justin Hawkins joined UNLV's coaching staff in April 2025.

Hawkins returns to UNLV after coaching at UNR for the last three seasons. He also served as the director of player development for the Wolfpack.

Before joining UNR, he was Pacific's director of basketball operations for two seasons. He had spent the previous four as the Tigers' video specialist.

Hawkins played his college basketball at UNLV from 2009-13, where he was team captain for two years and played in the NCAA Tournament all four seasons.

After his playing career, he began coaching as an assistant varsity coach and freshman head coach at Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada.