Former Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner has NCAA bracket advice, a career update

In other words, the time-tested methods of picking games based on uniform color or your level of connection with the school could be as valid as those of a former ACC coach of the year whose job is to consume, understand and explain as much basketball as he can. With that being said:

Pastner believes the gap between the eight first and second seeds and the remaining seeds is wider this year than it has been in recent tournaments.

“So I think you’re going to see the 1’s and 2’s really be deep in the tournament,” he said.

His Final Four: Auburn in the South, St. John’s in the West, Houston in the Midwest and Duke in the East. That’s three No. 1’s (Auburn, Houston, Duke) and a No. 2 (St. John’s).

He has Houston and Auburn in the championship game, with the Cougars winning it all.

Pastner said that Houston reminds him of the Virginia team that won the national championship in 2019, whose signature was its stifling defense.

“But if you looked at the numbers offensively, they were pretty darn good, too,” Pastner said. “That’s kind of (the same) with Houston. They’re not elite offensively. They’re elite and they’re very good in offensive transition, but they’re the best it’s been with (coach Kelvin Sampson) since he’s been there.”

As for potential upsets, he saw Drake-Missouri (a 6-11 matchup), UC San Diego-Michigan (5-12) and McNeese-Clemson (another 5-12) as games to consider pulling the lever on.

A caveat emptor — I asked him how he did last year with his Final Four prognosticating.

“I got a couple right,” he said. “But these things are crapshoots.”

As for Pastner himself, who was dismissed at Tech in March 2023 after seven seasons, he pronounced himself ready to get back into coaching. Pastner was 109-114 in seven seasons but in 2021 led the Yellow Jackets to their first ACC Tournament championship since 1993 and first NCAA Tournament berth since 2010. Before that, he coached at Memphis for seven seasons with a record of 167-73 with four NCAA appearances.

Pastner said that he turned down Division I head-coaching opportunities right after he was fired and in the 2024 hiring cycle because he deemed that the timing wasn’t right.

“I maybe wasn’t as ready last offseason and, obviously, right when I got let go,” he said. “But now I’m physically and mentally ready to coach.”

In the two years since the end of his Tech tenure, he has worked as an analyst for multiple networks and platforms. (You can find him during the tournament on the NCAA website as a studio analyst.)

He devoted time to his family and has become a spinning enthusiast, sometimes working out twice a day. He declared himself to be in “the greatest shape of my life.”

To prepare himself for the next coaching opportunity, he has watched dozens of his Tech and Memphis games and taken copious notes on things that he both liked and would fix. For his work and on his own, he has spoken with a number of coaching colleagues about their approaches, watched and called countless games and learned from people in the name, image and likeness sphere to understand what works and what doesn’t. He has had ample time for self-reflection.

“And so I’ve been able to have that to allow me to really be ready to go if there was an opportunity that presented itself,” he said.

How much interest there would be in Pastner is difficult to gauge. There are different ways to view his time at Tech. He was fired because he didn’t win enough. His teams were 53-78 in the ACC, had four losing seasons out of seven (including the last two) and made the NCAA Tournament once.

On the other hand, he took over a program that hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in the previous six seasons. He also led the Jackets to the NIT final in his first season. A COVID-19 diagnosis to his best player (Moses Wright) torpedoed the lone NCAA appearance. His teams played hard and represented the school well. There will be few coaches on the market who have won conference championships at two different schools.

And Pastner also carried the highly unusual burden of guiding the program while dealing with false accusations against him of sexual assault by a man and his girlfriend who had gained his friendship. They both later pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and were both sentenced to federal-prison terms.

Could Pastner’s tenure have been more successful if not for that bizarre saga? It’s not difficult to conclude so.

It would be triumphant for Pastner and the many people in his corner if he were given another opportunity to prove himself.

On the other hand, there’s no telling which way the winds will blow. There are scores of other coaches also deserving of a shot.

Pastner recognizes as much. Just because he’s ready, doesn’t mean he gets a Division I head-coaching job. The right opportunity could happen this year or it might not.

“It could be next offseason,” he said. “It might be three years down the line. I don’t know.”

As one annual rite of uncertainty and fate tips off in full Thursday, Pastner awaits his own.