Alex Kline (@TheRecruitScoop) tweeted:
2013 Briarcrest Christian (TN) PF Austin Nichols tweets that he has verbally committed to Memphis. Huge get for Josh Pastner.

https://twitter.com/TheRecruitScoop/stat...6543393792

Top 15, 5* recruit...the nBE arms race in full effect!

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basket...in-nichols

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RU ready for Primetime!!!

Dayammmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnn

NICE GET TIGERS!!!!

5-star on Rivals and 4-star on Scout...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/...ols-111627

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8...id=5542346

This is absolutely unbelievable. Right up until he was announced, Nichols was considered almost a lock to Tennessee. Even Josh Pastner thought that, until some point recently, of course.

This is ON TOP OF A TOP 5 RECRUITING CLASS already. Just in time for the BEast. Wow!

VolNation is going to be a riot today, lol. They thought they had him in the bag:

http://www.volnation.com/forum/tennessee...asketball/

Memphis going to the Big East probably tipped the scales against Tennessee. Nichols obviously wants to play in a Big Boy league.

(11-05-2012 11:59 AM)99Tiger Wrote:  5-star on Rivals and 4-star on Scout...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/...ols-111627

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8...id=5542346

5-star on ESPN. #12 in the country:

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basket...order/true

(11-05-2012 12:03 PM)LaBradfordsTWill Wrote:  Memphis going to the Big East probably tipped the scales against Tennessee. Nichols obviously wants to play in a Big Boy league.

Not sure. Maybe. His sister and a lot of his friends go to UT. His dad is a huge UT football fan. But his mom is a Tiger alum.

My guess is that Mom won out at the last second, along with Pastner's charm, and perhaps the Big East, too.

Anyway, this is a good thing for Memphis in particular, and also for the BEast. Memphis will likely wind up with the #2 class now.

(11-05-2012 12:02 PM)TripleA Wrote:  This is absolutely unbelievable. Right up until he was announced, Nichols was considered almost a lock to Tennessee. Even Josh Pastner thought that, until some point recently, of course.

This is ON TOP OF A TOP 5 RECRUITING CLASS already. Just in time for the BEast. Wow!

VolNation is going to be a riot today, lol. They thought they had him in the bag:

http://www.volnation.com/forum/tennessee...asketball/

I'm not sure if I'm more excited about seeing AN play for the home team or the fallout from BUTtchgger U. I think short term the hilarity of a hillybilly meltdown should get me thru Thanksgiving, long term though, welcome aboard Austin, can't wait!

CBS: Memphis surprisingly beats out Tennessee for Nichols

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketba...-tennessee

Last paragraph:

"Pastner now has one of the top recruiting classes in the country, as Nichols joins Nick King (No. 23), Kuran Iverson (No. 24), Markel Crawford (No. 91) and Rashawn Powell (No. 96) in Memphis' group. The Tigers are the only school in the country with five top-100 recruits at this point."

And 3 of them are 5-stars, on one service or another.

Well, fellow nBE fans, Memphis may suck in football right now, but we be BAAADDD AZZZES in basketball.

I love how every sporting network has put a story out on this except for ESPN. ... And they are supposed to be number 1 in sports? tsk tsk.

Bowen better circle the wagons and put Pastner under lock and key. After this season, he's going to be a hot commodity. It makes me laugh to think the pUKe fans are already eyeballing him for when Honest John takes his dog and pony show back to the NBA.

Wow, great job Memphis

(11-05-2012 12:31 PM)EvilLore Wrote:  Bowen better circle the wagons and put Pastner under lock and key. After this season, he's going to be a hot commodity. It makes me laugh to think the pUKe fans are already eyeballing him for when Honest John takes his dog and pony show back to the NBA.

No one has ever questioned Josh Pastner's recruiting capabilities...its been Pastner's coaching ability (or lack there of) that has been his biggest downfall so far...as Pastner is 0-12 vs Teams ranked in the Top 25 and in their 2 NCAA appearances.

Even bad teams occasionally beat Top 25 teams...whereas with some great young talent, Pastner hasn't even been able to do it once.

(11-05-2012 12:31 PM)EvilLore Wrote:  Bowen better circle the wagons and put Pastner under lock and key. After this season, he's going to be a hot commodity. It makes me laugh to think the pUKe fans are already eyeballing him for when Honest John takes his dog and pony show back to the NBA.

There aren't a lot of schools that can offer what Memphis does to a coach, especially after we joined not just a "power conference" but one of the clear-cut best. And considering what was offered to Cal to try to induce him to stay, I'm not too worried about being able to match and exceed other programs' offers the vast majority of the time.

(11-05-2012 01:36 PM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 12:31 PM)EvilLore Wrote:  Bowen better circle the wagons and put Pastner under lock and key. After this season, he's going to be a hot commodity. It makes me laugh to think the pUKe fans are already eyeballing him for when Honest John takes his dog and pony show back to the NBA.

No one has ever questioned Josh Pastner's recruiting capabilities...its been Pastner's coaching ability (or lack there of) that has been his biggest downfall so far...as Pastner is 0-12 vs Teams ranked in the Top 25 and in their 2 NCAA appearances.

Even bad teams occasionally beat Top 25 teams...whereas with some great young talent, Pastner hasn't even been able to do it once.

I think the biggest problem has been the lack of stability in the coaching staff. Assistants have come and gone since Pastner started at Memphis. And last season we had to hire a new assistant coach in the middle of the season.

Obviously Josh is going to have to produce in this area or his seat will get warm. But this signing class will help a lot!

(11-05-2012 01:36 PM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 12:31 PM)EvilLore Wrote:  Bowen better circle the wagons and put Pastner under lock and key. After this season, he's going to be a hot commodity. It makes me laugh to think the pUKe fans are already eyeballing him for when Honest John takes his dog and pony show back to the NBA.

No one has ever questioned Josh Pastner's recruiting capabilities...its been Pastner's coaching ability (or lack there of) that has been his biggest downfall so far...as Pastner is 0-12 vs Teams ranked in the Top 25 and in their 2 NCAA appearances.

Even bad teams occasionally beat Top 25 teams...whereas with some great young talent, Pastner hasn't even been able to do it once.

True, but Pastner has had 3 seasons. The first one, we had 6 scholarship players, and one unranked recruit (Calipari took most of our #1 class with him to UK). The second one, we had great recruits, but all freshmen and little else. We lost to Arizona by 2 points in the NCAAs, and they went Elite 8. Last year, we should have won one or two.

And we haven't played that many, either. We went to early season tourneys, and also played Kansas twice and Louisville once, and a number of teams we had scheduled fell out of the rankings before we played them.

I have a feeling Pastner will break through this season, but again, we only have one ranked team on the schedule, as of now. Louisville in December. None in C-USA, as usual. We play VCU first at Atlantis, and they are just outside the rankings right now.

IF we beat them, then we'll have a shot at Duke. Beat Duke, and that does it, plus, we might get a shot at Louisville a few weeks early, if we beat Duke.

Our core is now all juniors, so we should get both the Top 25 and the NCAA tourney win monkeys off our back. Pastner is a world class recruiter. He's been a HC for 3 years. Coach K had a losing record at Duke for 4 or 5 years, I think, while Pastner has been winning 25+, and more than any other coach in Memphis history, to this point, including Calipari.

Pastner also got to the NCAAs faster than Calipari did, and Cal was an experienced F4 coach, with a better starting group. Pastner will be fine.

(11-05-2012 01:53 PM)PlainTiger Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 01:36 PM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 12:31 PM)EvilLore Wrote:  Bowen better circle the wagons and put Pastner under lock and key. After this season, he's going to be a hot commodity. It makes me laugh to think the pUKe fans are already eyeballing him for when Honest John takes his dog and pony show back to the NBA.

No one has ever questioned Josh Pastner's recruiting capabilities...its been Pastner's coaching ability (or lack there of) that has been his biggest downfall so far...as Pastner is 0-12 vs Teams ranked in the Top 25 and in their 2 NCAA appearances.

Even bad teams occasionally beat Top 25 teams...whereas with some great young talent, Pastner hasn't even been able to do it once.

I think the biggest problem has been the lack of stability in the coaching staff. Assistants have come and gone since Pastner started at Memphis. And last season we had to hire a new assistant coach in the middle of the season.

Obviously Josh is going to have to produce in this area or his seat will get warm. But this signing class will help a lot!

Many Tiger fans noted the same thing, especially in regards to some of Pastner's first few hires...as when a very young first or second year HC needs more than anything is experience in regards to his staff...as I think the last 2 hires Pastner made, he has addressed some errors from his first year or two.

(11-05-2012 01:58 PM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 01:53 PM)PlainTiger Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 01:36 PM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 12:31 PM)EvilLore Wrote:  Bowen better circle the wagons and put Pastner under lock and key. After this season, he's going to be a hot commodity. It makes me laugh to think the pUKe fans are already eyeballing him for when Honest John takes his dog and pony show back to the NBA.

No one has ever questioned Josh Pastner's recruiting capabilities...its been Pastner's coaching ability (or lack there of) that has been his biggest downfall so far...as Pastner is 0-12 vs Teams ranked in the Top 25 and in their 2 NCAA appearances.

Even bad teams occasionally beat Top 25 teams...whereas with some great young talent, Pastner hasn't even been able to do it once.

I think the biggest problem has been the lack of stability in the coaching staff. Assistants have come and gone since Pastner started at Memphis. And last season we had to hire a new assistant coach in the middle of the season.

Obviously Josh is going to have to produce in this area or his seat will get warm. But this signing class will help a lot!

Many Tiger fans noted the same thing, especially in regards to some of Pastner's first few hires...as when a very young first or second year HC needs more than anything is experience in regards to his staff...as I think the last 2 hires Pastner made, he has addressed some errors from his first year or two.

Agree with this.

As good as this recruiting class is right now, none of them might be starters on next years team. Adonis Thomas will move on to the NBA next year but most of the core of this years team is expected to be back. These recruits will be able to have quality veteran leaders at their positions showing them the ropes. We had a large recruiting class like this three years ago but we did not have veterans pushing them.

(11-05-2012 01:56 PM)TripleA Wrote:  Pastner also got to the NCAAs faster than Calipari did...

Don't think anyone suggested otherwise.

Plus, not one Tiger fan would ever compare the top program that Calipari left Pastner with (jammed pack FedEx Forum, "rich" basketball budget, recent NCAA Championship Game Final 4 appearance, etc...), vs what the program was like when Cal arrived in Memphis (just a .500 team over the previous 3 seasons...including a LOSING season when Cal took over).

Cal not only rebuilt but "blew off the doors" of the power/$$$$ of Memphis Hoops as it was almost night and day difference in regards to the health of the program for Cal's first year as compared to Josh's.