11-02-2011 | Coach Josh Pastner to Headline 2011 Cooper Invitational Welcome Banquet

11-2-2011 | Coach Josh Pastner to Headline 2011 Cooper Invitational Welcome Banquet

By Josh Kahane

Coach Josh Pastner, third year head men’s basketball coach of the University of Memphis Tigers, will participate in the 2011 Cooper Yeshiva High School National Invitational Tournament. Coach Pastner, one of a handful of top tier Jewish Division I basketball head coaches, will speak to Invitational participants and provide a question and answer session for the student-athletes at the Welcome Banquet Thursday night. Coach Pastner played on the 1997 University of Arizona Wildcat National Championship basketball team, and served as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona under Lute Olson and at the University of Memphis under John Calipari. In his first year as head coach of the University of Memphis Tigers, Coach Pastner was named Sporting News’ C-USA Coach of the Year. Last year, Coach Pastner led the Tigers to the C-USA Conference Championship and an NCAA Tournament birth as well as being awarded the 2011 Red Auerbach Coach of the Year. This season, Coach Pastner has put together one of the top 2011 recruiting classes in the nation and the University of Memphis Tigers are a preseason Top 10 pick. Coach Pastner is a highly dynamic speaker whose presentation will certainly inspire and energize the audience.