UNLV Runnin' Rebels Head Coach Josh Pastner Believes TV Gave Him A Different Perspective

This offseason, UNLV Rebels athletic director Erick Harper made a huge signing when he managed to lure former Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Josh Pastner out of the TV studio and back into coaching. It was a splashy signing that not many thought Harper could get done. While he has done a great job and we've seen him have success as a head coach, earlier in the offseason, he took the time to talk about how his experience in TV has helped shape him as a coach. He believes it gave him a new perspective that he can use to his advantage in Las Vegas.

He also went on to say that he loved TV and had other opportunities to coach, but none of them were a better opportunity than TV until UNLV came along. This is what he had to say:

UNLV Runnin' Rebels Men's Head Basketball Coach On His Experience Being In TV And How It Helped Him As A Coach

“The nice thing about being in TV is you have a great opportunity to really study the game, study different programs, go to practices and shoot arounds, talk to coaches. When you’re competing against them, they aren’t going to let you behind the scenes.

I could see what things I did well in my first 14 years as a head coach, and some other things where I thought ‘We’ve got to get better at this area or that area.’ It really gave me a chance, from a 30,000-foot perspective, without the pressure of winning and losing, to really get better as a coach. You didn’t have to make a decision on, ‘How are you going to guard this ball screen? What are you going to do on this back screen? What are you going to do in this out of bounds play?’

I loved TV. Absolutely loved it. I had some other (coaching) opportunities, but I didn’t feel they were better than television, and the opportunities that I had in television are hard to get. But when the UNLV job opened, to me, it was an awesome opportunity. It was incredible, because it’s a massive job. The tradition of UNLV is awesome. It’s a sleeping giant. I really believe that maybe the trees just need to be shaken a little bit to kind of wake it back up.”