RUNNIN' VEGAS - The John McNamara Podcast

UNLV Basketball's New Direction with Austin Starr: Josh Pastner, NIL Money, and the Future of College Hoops

John McNamara
Speaker 1:

Hey guys, john McNamara host Running Vegas. We're talking local sports, business, real estate. If you guys like what you see, please subscribe, like us. Follow us on Run in Vegas podcast on Instagram. Today we got a special co-host, mr Austin Starr, my favorite former Rebel in the house. Let's do it. We're talking Rebels. You guys know my favorite subject. So big news Josh Pastner, new coach. Unlv basketball.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited to see where he takes this program. Honestly, it's been a long time since we've had a successful season. I know we've had some success but, according to UNLV, basketball hasn't been a successful season yet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's been a long 10 years but I like the hire. So to give you guys a little background on Josh Pastner, he was a former Memphis head coach, georgia Tech. He won three American titles one ACC tournament title. He was coach of the year for ACC, coach of the year at American one time Won a national title on the Arizona Wildcats in 1997 as a player. He was coach of the year for ACC, coach of the year at American one time Won a national title on the Arizona Wildcats in 1997 as a player walk-on. So he's known for his recruiting, his enthusiasm and overall. At first that was because we haven't heard about Josh Pastner in a while. I mean when you were playing he was on Memphis. He was kind of a big deal then but at first I was kind of like eh, I'm not sure. And then the more research I did I got a little bit more excited, especially after the presser and seeing his energy and enthusiasm.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's a very energetic coach. You've kind of seen that in his past with all the coaches, all the teams that he's coached. You know his press conference here. You could definitely tell the energy was there, which is always nice to have as a coach. But I mean, like I said, we'll see how it goes. It's the beginning of it. It seems like he's starting from pretty much ground zero with the kids from the transfers that have happened recently. He's trying to rebuild a team now. So we'll see how long that takes. But I mean that leads us into another situation with NIL how the money looks and if you know he's going to actually put more money into the team.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you bring up a lot of good points, so why don't we dive into it a little bit? I mean, what do you think? Overall, it seems like you're happy with the hire. It kind of you know it's funny because you're on dave rice's team. Yes, it does kind of feel a little bit the first time in a long time where you have a guy who is kind of saying the right things in the beginning. He's a good recruiter, like dave was it kind of feels like that again, I don't know if you get that kind of feeling too, but yeah, I mean Dave.

Speaker 2:

I mean I love Dave, he was. He was my coach. My dad coached him when he was in college, so it's a complete circle. Dave was a really good recruiter when he was here, basically when when he was anywhere. He was at BYU and Reno. He did a really good job recruiting after he was at UNLV. But yeah, it kind of does have the same vibe as when Dave became the coach here and you know we got to say the right things when we're in Vegas. You know be a little bit more like politician.

Speaker 1:

You don't want to break anything on the pod right now?

Speaker 2:

No, no, I mean not even, but I'm talking about like when you're head coach here, you got to have to play into the politics a little bit of vegas, um, so it seems like he's doing.

Speaker 1:

He's doing a good job at that, at least so far yeah, he's saying the right things now, the actions and the wins and the recruiting.

Speaker 1:

We'll see what that happens. He's kind of a little off to a good start. It seems like the last two. It's only been about a weekend, um, but it seems like the last two classes, the freshmen and sophomores all those guys are returning which are like high levels, three-star kids, low level four, so guys with potential that are probably a year or two away, that could either be starters, stars or contributors in some way. So the basis there, which I'm excited and I think you hit it right on the nose is who are going to be the starters next year and the transfer portal rules college basketball. So he potentially needs to get five starters in the transfer portal. So let's dive into what's going to make Josh Pastner successful for year two and maybe first year and maybe going to year two, because it sounds like from his press he's not. He's not going to rebuild mode, he wants to win now.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, you kind of have to Right. As we know, Vegas is, vegas. Fans can be very, very good if you are very, very good. Yeah, if you're not, they won't be. It's kind of just how it always has been here in Vegas. But I mean, yeah, he's going to have to hit the. He's hitting the ground running already.

Speaker 2:

We're part of the UNLV legends and they sent out some emails. He's trying to reach out to old-time Rebels, trying to get more into that realm, which I think is very important, especially getting in with Justin Hawkins as being one of the assistant coaches now. So that's a good start. Justin's a really good guy he's. He was that um, he was the double at Pacific and then he was just up at UNR for the last couple years as one of the assistant coach out there. So he does a great job coaching. And then recruitment is going to be very, very tough and I kind of hit this point prior it's going to be very, very tough for him, just because if UNLV is not putting money into the basketball program, we're not going to see a lot of kids that want to come to Vegas. Yeah, he says he said it over and over again this is a dream job. This is a dream location for basketball, but it kind of hasn't been for a very long time recently.

Speaker 2:

So you can't play into the history of UNLV if you're not going to create history yourself at this point in time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so what would you consider like a success for year one, year two for Passner?

Speaker 2:

It's different times. I mean I can't really. I I mean at least 500. He's gonna have to hit 500 in the first year, I think, to actually see a progress going forward. Um, but I mean we've seen New Mexico, colorado State, um, boise State, um, were those only three in the tournament this year, or was there one?

Speaker 1:

uh, let's see we got boise colorado state, san diego state, new mexico, so that's four. Was it for this year? That's four? Oh no, boise didn't get in, they were left out three.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my bad but even then, I mean, you still have to. Mountain west conference is really good yeah um, and and it's coaching to not only the team but it's to the conference as well and the recruiting aspect of it. I don't think that we've had shooters in the past, I don't think that we've had an offensive flow for a system that actually works in the Mountain West under the last administration. But I mean, we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we'll see. And I agree with you because I thought the offense was not good here. I think Kruger was a little late to the party. He kind of got some shooters last year, but the offense didn't open them up.

Speaker 2:

It was a very emotional offense, it wasn't set for screens. It wasn't set for pin downs, any floppy actions, anything like that. They didn't really have anything. They kind of wanted to put it in the DJ's hands and I think this is one of the points I hit on in our last podcast was it was in the point guard's hands a little bit too much.

Speaker 2:

It didn't get any flow of the offense for the shooters to actually touch the ball and I agree it didn't get any flow of the offense for the shooters to actually touch the ball and, being a shooter myself, it's really important to at least even touch the ball. If I pass it and I get a pass and I pass it back, that's still a touch. I'm still able to feel the ball. I'm still able to get into the motion of things. So I think the offensive scheme has to be a little bit better.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree with you and uh, because you've gone over a lot of things so you hit on hawkins. Just it was kind of fun for me because when unilv was good, like 10 years ago, he was actually one of my favorite players, lockdown defender I mean. He always played the best guard out there on the offense side of the guard anyways, so it's fun to see him come back. I'm glad they got their roots back. And yeah, it's interesting with um, some big news this week. Uh, and you and I have talked about uh thomas multiple times on the pod. Big fans of him, you know him very well. But yeah, what are your thoughts of him going to lsu? What the yeah him going to lsu and how that affects UNLV moving forward.

Speaker 2:

I don't think it affects UNLV too much. Yes, he was a very good player. I think it got to the point where and this is I'll try to not tangent too much, but I think this is where the NIL becomes the biggest thing right think this is where the nil becomes.

Speaker 2:

The biggest thing right is is seeing dj last year and how he was playing and, um, how he's playing. Prior to that it looked like a contract year in the nba. So, um, yeah, now you're gonna have kids that are gonna want to do more and more and more and create more stats for themselves so they can then transfer over into something else and get more money. Yeah, so that's kind of where I saw it for him. Yes, you lose a great player. I think DJ's one of the best guards that I've seen that come out of Vegas, but I think LSU gets a good point guard.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it was a great win for LSU and I'm glad DJ was a rebel for two years and, um, I think it's actually I don't know if I'm agreeing with you or not but I think it's a good thing he's moving on, because a lot of nil we've been talking a lot. It went to him rightfully so, he was the best player and without him I don't know what this team would have looked like. But we need, uh, I think unillv needs is a lot of good players. Uh, you know, versus sinking all their money into one player and we saw the effect of that last year. It was, you know, it didn't go the way a lot of us hoped. Yeah, so, yeah, so to kind of, I guess, go back to in terms of, I think, what um pastner needs to be successful. You keep going, going over NIL and I completely agree.

Speaker 1:

A lot of the reports is Kruger, his NIL cap. He was making it, he had about $1 million. And Pastner, it seems like his goals are somewhere between $2 to $3 million, which would be on top of Mountain West, not powerful at conferences. But I think that's a huge, huge part of what's going on with college basketball right now. And, yeah, what are your? I mean like nil right now. I mean, what are you thought? Because we I feel like we've seen a huge shift in college basketball oh yeah so what are your thoughts on nil?

Speaker 1:

to dive a little bit deeper, not not necessarily on UNLV, but the college basketball landscape as a whole- yeah, so well one.

Speaker 2:

I mean I think that when coaches go in, I think, to these schools, now I think they negotiate their price and they can negotiate the NIL price and that's a huge, huge deterrent for a lot of coaches. Now, if they're not going to get NIL money on top of their own right, if they can't get the kids, if they can't get, you know, money to pay the kids, they're not going to get the kids, and they know that. But I think it's huge, I think it's changed basketball substantially. I think it's changed the trajectory of college basketball. As I've said, kids are going to be in their contract years now and not just what's best for the school, what's best for the team growing. And then I think that you know, as we could see now, I mean, this is the first time in what 17 years, 17 plus years that we've had all number one seeds in the final four. We we spoke before we went on air. I mean Arkansas somehow was a Cinderella team this year right.

Speaker 2:

I don't think that we're going to see any more Cinderella teams just because all these kids are going to go to the school that's paying the most. Schools that are paying the most are going to be paying the most kids. So I think that the talent aspect of things is all going to stay where the money is.

Speaker 1:

I agree. I mean you see these rosters now and SEC teams or Dukes of the world just blowing out teams scoring like a hundred points a game, yeah, and it's like, yeah, they're, they're basically NBA teams now Versus college teams like the mid majors, right, yeah, if it feels like kind of like the mid majors are kind of like the feeding ground of the developmental, where they build, like you saw dent go to UCLA a bunch of these kids that have success in the mid-majors Now, rightfully so, good for them. They can make all this money going to a Power 4. But what we're seeing is a low-level Power 4, like salary cap for them is about $7-8 million and the number one, nil in Mountain West, is $2-3 million, and you hit it on the nose in the beginning too. And Mountain West is $2-3 million, and you hit it on the nose in the beginning too, because Hodgson, the head coach of Arkansas State was.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if you saw it, but he had been offered by UNLV and he was supposed to be the coach. What happened was he got a better NIL package from South Florida and Pastner became our coach. Yeah, so I and I think it's a good thing overall because and you understand Unilever culture because you were in it better. I do think we need a guide that can build that NIL and it's not just going to be a X's and O's guide, because I just I haven't seen it and I'm not sure what's going on with the culture of you know me, but I haven't seen a collective to build this for a coach. We're seeing it kind of football now, because Odom success and I kind of feel like with passenger, if he had a couple years of success he can get that and develop that yeah.

Speaker 2:

But I think that's really like not just the coach needs but the university, yeah, needs to step up in this regard yeah, and I and I kind of touched on it too I think I think one of the biggest things for unlv is digging into the history, especially as I mean we've had very, very many successful teams at unlv, especially with especially with the Stacey Augmans, larry Johnsons, all that kind of stuff, and I'm very close to them.

Speaker 2:

My dad coached that team, stacey was my coach, dave was my coach. Obviously Larry Johnson's a really good dude Golf with him every once in a while when he's down in town. But I think tapping into that I mean I've. But I think tapping into that I mean being in that as well as kind of seeing UNLV, not liking UNLV and that kind of sucks right. I mean you have a lot of successful old players, so why not tap into that? Why not see if we can get the legends going again and getting more NIL from that? I mean I think that that was one thing that I think the last couple of coaching staffs didn't hit on at all.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree with you. I mean like I think Menzies was like a complete like mess but Kruger, obviously there was a legacy with Lon and all that and they kind of did their thing. But you know, it's funny because I'm glad you brought this up, because I was thinking, because now we're kind of seeing like GMs for like basketball program and football programs, I was actually thinking I'm like how cool would it be if you had a Stacey Augman as the GM for the basketball program? I don't think he's going to come back now and be an assistant. Uh, he's had so much success in the NBA now, um, but if that's somehow the, the University could create a role to bring that back, it would. It would make it such a huge impact because we haven't seen that since, yeah, since Dave. Yeah, you know he brought that all together and you know you don't have any endorse endorsements.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, um I think UNL don't have any endorsements.

Speaker 2:

I think UNLV has lacked on endorsements from those players. You see the Dukes, you see the North Carolinas, and that was the time where UNLV was top of the list. But you see, duke is raving about Duke players Like Shane. I mean not Shane Shire, what's that Shire? That Shire Shire? Yeah, he's digging into all their old players and they're endorsing Shire. I mean, we don't have that here and I think, that's one thing that's very important to tap into again yeah, yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely, yep, cool, um, anything else you want to go over the UNLV uh not really.

Speaker 2:

I not really. I don't know if there's anything else to say. I think that I think we just have to see where, where this year takes us um, see what kind of recruits that he gets and see what he does yeah, it'd be cool too if we can get the mac uh filled again.

Speaker 1:

So you're really nice. Have you seen that coastal carolina ad? So they're for season ticket, free, uh, like free meal if you're a season. I'm like they gotta do something. Yeah, you know like something creative, because I mean I remember when I had season tickets going to watch you and those teams, I mean we had to pay like a fee on top of like the season. I think all that stuff has gone away because the the program has been a little diminished over the last 10 years. But you gotta get got to get fans back in, because Thomas Mac is a great place to play in. Yeah, and if we had 10,000 folks in there, I mean that would change the complete atmosphere. Oh, the atmosphere is crazy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when the Mac is packed it is bar none. I mean, even when Menzies was there, I know he paid for I think he paid- X amount of dollars to get free tickets and still no one showed up. Yeah, so it's kind of just, I don't. I don't know how you rally, but you have to get some excitement behind it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree it's been kind of rough to you know, we probably imagine averaging about three to four thousand fans a game and I kind of feel bad. This is the three to four thousand fans a game and I kind of feel bad. This is the first year I have not gone to a Unalvy basketball game in 10 years. So it's uh. I'm glad that there's excitement again and with Josh coming in and I think the future too is I'm really hoping Unalvy.

Speaker 1:

Harper, I think, has done a really good job with his hires. Odom thought thought it was great. Clearly he proved that. Dan Mullen seems like a home run hunter We'll see, but I think they're going to be competing for football championships now. Pastner seems like a good hire. So, and I really am hoping the culture of UNLV can step up and they can surround not only these, because these head coaches can only do so much. They need support not only by the community. I'm got Josh bought that up, but what we're seeing, especially in basketball, like BYU, I hope they transition. Because Josh, I'm glad he's excited, he wants to do all these things right now. Yeah, I'm just wondering like how long he can do that for without burning out, because you know if he's the lead recruiter, his X's and O's and he's bringing all the NIL money.

Speaker 2:

What man you tired to say that it's gonna get tiring If he's the lead recruiter, his X's and O's and he's bringing all the NIL money what man can sustain that.

Speaker 1:

It's going to get tiring, right, yeah, and he seems like he could do it. He seems like a legit dude, but I really hope they surround himself either with like a VGM or BYU system. They were very smart. I think the future of college basketball is hire the best X's o's head coach. Hire people that can recruit for you. Hire a collective for the nil. Everybody just does their one thing and we saw with byu this year oh yeah, and they're only going to get much better yeah, number one, yeah, and they have a lot of money.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean we're paying the kids seven million dollars for a year. I think think that speaks volumes yeah.

Speaker 1:

They'll be in the Sweet 16 almost every year Probably, and I do feel like UNLV has that ability and maybe the NIL is two to 3 million now, but maybe every year with more success. Just keep building that NIL, Cause I think you gotta get to seven, 8 million, you know, to compete at least with those power fours. Cause I think the end goal for UNLV is to get in the Big 12. And you got to see university support for the Big 12 to want that, because the landscape, the location, the facilities is all there. It's just like you said. Are we going to all get along? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

pretty much.

Speaker 1:

Yeah so.

Speaker 2:

We shall see.

Speaker 1:

We shall see. We're in for you, josh. We're excited, let's do it. So let's dive. We got our basketball in, got my. You don't need nerd basketball out, so feel good about that. We're gonna transition to real estate. Cool, so big news for this man. He moved to sotheby's international real realty. Excited for you, thank you. Tell us about the change, the opportunities you're having and you know, dive into that. Let's hear about your real estate life a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, yeah, no, most definitely. So I was at Virtue. I will say I mean I loved it there. Darren is a great, great agent himself and he's a great broker. Nothing bad to say at all. Agent himself, he's a great broker, nothing bad to say at all. I did like the energy and everybody there. I thought it was a great opportunity for me to move further in my career and just with the opportunities, the support that is at Sotheby's, I think the reach that is much needed for me moving forward.

Speaker 1:

Cool yeah. So what are your real estate goals over the next couple of years?

Speaker 2:

My real estate goals for this year. Currently I want to double my highest production and I was a little bit over $9 million, so I do want to reach about $20 million in sales this year. Okay For moving forward. I think that just I'm not monetary as far as in the in the future, just kind of growing every single day from from here until I get to that point where it is kind of more of a steady, steady growth.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, and what are you doing for that growth?

Speaker 2:

Um, a lot of different marketing. Um, now I'm getting out a lot more um, meeting more people, creating more relationships out a lot more meeting more people creating more relationships. I think, getting into different groups, that a more referral business, and I think that that's kind of the route that I'm taking and that's one of the main reasons I went over to Sotheby's as well.

Speaker 1:

Awesome is for their marketing and their support yeah, great brokerage, big name, a big name, and especially in luxury real estate. A lot of people know that. So, yeah, we're excited about you and your success now and future success. You've got big things going on and I know you're big in the sport industry. That's where you get a lot of your clients from, so it will probably magnify that to another level.

Speaker 2:

Yep doing a lot of private training with kids giving back to the community that way.

Speaker 1:

Oh cool. Talk to us more about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so recently I think the last four years, as soon as I got back from playing, when I retired ultimately is when I got into training kids Any age. I have two kids that just got division one offers, one committed to Detroit. The other one is that was at UCSB this year and then I'm trying to get him over to Carnegie Mellon next year.

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow, so using my connections through what I've built in my basketball career and helping kids now and I mean not making the same mistakes I did going into college or going into making decisions for their growth in basketball- man.

Speaker 1:

That must be very rewarding. Yeah to yeah create opportunities for others and come from contributions.

Speaker 2:

So yep, that's my uh. I really enjoy doing that, so yeah, you can tell.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's cool, I love that. So let's dive into a little bit real estate. Okay, what's going on with the market? What are what are you seeing for the spring and maybe going to the end of the year out there?

Speaker 2:

I mean I think things are picking up right now in Vegas. Weather is getting warmer. I think that's getting more people out there and looking and we know we're coming towards the end of the school year, which I think is when people start picking up. People will move. If they don't like the school that their kids are at, they do up and move. We do see a lot of clients coming from Washington, from different tax situations, california yep, seeing some of the fire effect, but not all of it because of the insurance claims and people are just selling lots out there now or anything like there, and this is the closest one to it. I mean it's very unfortunate the circumstances that they are coming over here for yeah, I think that is changing the market a little bit yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 1:

I know, just for us, I've had a lot of clients for the first quarter that we're thinking about moving like five years from now and they're moving out this year now because everything that's occurred so, yeah, it's been interesting. So sales were up for March we had the highest amount of pending that we've had and I believe over two years this is like per month, so that was a good sign. Typically, you know, spring we see like this, as you know, like this, two months of just a run, which I haven't really kind of seen yet, and I think part of that is like everything going on with the tariffs, yeah, with all the politics yep.

Speaker 1:

The consumer confidence is a little down right now, but overall, obviously, s&p is going down. There's a bunch of things going on which ultimately always affects the real estate market. Long-term, I'll say this real estate looks very healthy, yep.

Speaker 2:

Especially Vegas. I tell people all the time, especially for my out-of-state clients I mean, or people that are like, okay, I want to wait for a few years. You know, vegas is an island. We're just not surrounded by water, we're surrounded by BLM and mountains. I mean we have gene growth towards that way. You got the airport that's going out there, so you see growth going towards California, but I mean right now we can't build enough to subside, I mean to sustain the production.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, great point. I've never heard the island. I'm going to use that now, so I trademarked it.

Speaker 2:

I'm using it. Just don't watch the bottom of the future.

Speaker 1:

I, so I trademarked it. I'm using it. Just don't watch the bottom of the future, right? I love that, uh. But yeah, you're right, and especially with terror, like with the tariff situation, I'm not sure how that's going to affect builders, but sounds like it is going to affect them and people are worried about that and everything. So I'm like, well, if you have a house, this is not going to be a bad thing, because probably prices are going to go up. Oh yeah, so if you are out there thinking about it and you're worried about the market, get in now, because we're already, at least in Vegas. I can't speak nationally. I think overall nationally, we are down in inventory, but I know for sure in Las Vegas we're like 10 years behind. It's going to be almost kind of like california. It's going to be almost impossible to catch up, and this is why prices have continued to go up yeah, and pendings spendings, uh, month over month have grown um they were at like 23.

Speaker 2:

One month they were at like 43. So it kind of just shows um, there is production, there is pendings, yeah, um, the more listings that have come on, the more listings that have been taken off. I think that if you have a house that is very well updated, I think those ones are going a little bit faster and the ones that are sitting are going to still sit.

Speaker 1:

But I mean, yeah, that's a really good point. And I'm telling my clients right now because I think, since the pandemic, the consumer thinks like, hey, my house is supposed to sell in an hour, maybe a couple of days, like that's gone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're in a completely different time.

Speaker 1:

Completely different time, completely different time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I had same community in Mesa Ridge. Have one right now. We've been on market at this price for about 60 days. Have one right now. We've been on market at this price for about 60 days. And then the one I sold the year prior so not last year, but the year prior sold in 22 days start to finish.

Speaker 1:

So it's a completely different market. So that's pretty good because I'm telling like clients, like months now, and when I got into real estate dinosaur john here in real estate for 20 years I mean it took it took months to sell homes. That was considered a normal market. It was never like you sold houses in an hour. That that has just been a thing over the last like five years.

Speaker 2:

During COVID, when everything was booming.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, right, exactly, but usually it's like it takes a couple months and then there's two months hot spring. We see the appreciation that's flat for nine months. This is very normal for real estate. So I think a lot of consumers out there buyers and sellers they're a little like worried about the market and I'm just reassuring like this is just kind of like more of a normal market.

Speaker 2:

This is a normal market. Yeah, yeah and I understand why people aren't putting their homes on because they have that 2.75 interest rate and that's going to be another factor that people aren't either going to want to spend money, or people aren't going to want to give up that rate, or they're just going to have that house and switch it to a rental.

Speaker 2:

Go buy something else so you're not going to see all these houses coming on the market. The inventory is going to pretty much stay steady, if that, unless the interest rates go down substantially to a point where people are like, okay, cool, maybe now I'll sell my house, and it's not that much of a difference in the interest rate yeah, I think going into this year too, there was a lot of confidence that interest rates were gonna get back on the fives.

Speaker 1:

I don't think that's that realistic. Now I think it's gonna be next year, and everything that we've learned is it's usually about two point difference when people will make a move. Um, so there's a lot of people in the threes that want to, so we're probably going to a whole nother wave of real estate. I think this year's gonna be better than the last couple years, but I think all that kind is gonna push it out a year or two, depending on when the rates get to the fives again, whenever that is. So yeah, so that's it. I want to thank Austin Starr for being on. Appreciate you talking. You'll be basketball with me. If you guys need to buy some luxury real estate or buy this man a beer at the thomas and mac, hit him up. Guys, this is ron and vegas. Take care of yourselves today. Peace.