Josh Pastner Talks Future At Georgia Tech After Loss To Pittsburgh

Josh Pastner has been on the hot seat all season

Jackson Caudell | Mar 8, 2023

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Georgia Tech appeared to be making a strong second-half comeback against Pitt today in the second round of the ACC Tournament, but the Yellow Jackets came up short and lost the game 89-81.

While the team has played better over the last month of the season, there has been a lot of speculation about the future of head coach Josh Pastner and whether or not he would continue being the head coach at Georgia Tech. Pastner has been with the program for seven years but has produced underwhelming results outside of his ACC Tournament title two seasons ago.

During the post-game press conference, Pastner was asked what he had done to earn more time at Georgia Tech, and here is what he had to say (transcript courtesy of Georgia Tech PR and the ACC Tournament):

"Look, I would tell you that when I got the job, they told me when I came in, and I met with everybody, that it's going to be -- you're starting from ground zero. And they said you're going to lose so much your first three or four years that you're going to -- we've got to have someone that's going to be ultra positive because you're going to lose so much. Initially they told me they didn't know if I could handle it because at Memphis, we had won a lot of games. We had won quite a bit at Memphis. I said, no, I'm excited about the rebuild. I'm excited about that.

It took us some time, but I told everyone there that it was going to be five years. We were really good in year four. Obviously the COVID thing happened, and then we were really good in year five. Look, last year we didn't have as great of a year. We've really finished really well this year, and I wish we started better -- we started fine, it was probably more that middle run. But I would tell you, I hope to be at Georgia Tech. I love Georgia Tech. I love my job. I have a real passion for it, and I believe in it. Obviously my boss is President Cabrera and Mr. Batt, they're in charge, so whatever they say, they're in charge. I hope I can continue to be at Georgia Tech."

Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner — Will Josh Pastner remain the head coach at Georgia Tech? / Georgia Tech Athletics

When asked if he would have done anything differently this season looking back on it, here was Pastner's response:

"Yeah, obviously if I knew what I knew now, I would have just gone with five guys, six guys. But that's part of -- just took us a little bit of a time to evolve as a team. We started out, like I told you, we were shooting so well in the preseason, the summer, and in the two exhibition games we shot it at such a high level, and then we just didn't shoot it as well as I thought.

Then I thought we really -- we had a great win. We forget, we had a great win at Georgia State, and I know you might say -- still, on the road in a tough environment, we had a great win there, we had a great win against Georgia at home, and we had a great win against Miami at home. It was like, okay, we can turn the corner. It was just after the Miami game, we just never got going. We lost -- had a tough loss in overtime versus Notre Dame at Notre Dame in January, had a chance to win against NC State at home in January, had a couple others that slipped through our cracks. And just right there we had the chance, and it just slipped right through us.

Yeah, I mean, if I knew what I knew now. But I think that's just part of the evolution of our team and our growth. I think the job in a leadership position in my position, I've got to continue to find solutions during the course of a season, be solution focused and solution oriented to try to help us get better. And my staff did such a great job on that and these players. Yeah, I don't know. I wish we won every -- I promise you, I want to win every possession that I coach. Anybody that knows me, these guys that know me, I want to win not just every game but literally every possession, and literally every possession eats at me inside. And as positive as I am, because I believe in positivity internally, I mean, I want to -- I'm so competitive of winning every single possession. Because I recognize every possession is so precious to win a game.

We understood that, we just maybe understood it a little bit later than normal."

J Batt has a decision to make regarding the future of the basketball program and it will be interesting to see if he gives Pastner another season.

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