Ten years ago, Joe Pasternack became a head basketball coach in NCAA Division 1 under dire circumstances. An assistant coach with the Cal Bears, he took the helm at the University of New Orleans (UNO) when the Privateers were still adrift from the impact of Hurricane Katrina. They had achieved some stability when he left after four years to join Sean Miller’s staff at the University of Arizona.
Miller promoted Pasternack to associate head coach during a six-year period in which the Wildcats reached a pair of Sweet 16s and a pair of Elite Eights in the NCAA tournament. Those were pretty good cards for him to show when he came to Santa Barbara looking to take charge of another program that is reeling a bit.
It was a bold stroke for UCSB to make Pasternack just the third head coach of the Gaucho men’s team in the past 34 years. His predecessors, Jerry Pimm and Bob Williams, were both 45 when they came to Santa Barbara, and they settled into long and generally successful careers. Pimm’s teams filled the Thunderdome for epic games against UNLV and achieved UCSB’s only victory in the NCAA tournament. Williams had a 19-year run that included three NCAA appearances and the most wins (313) of any UCSB men’s coach. The Gauchos averaged 17 victories a season before fading to 6-22 in 2016-17.