Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner In Big Trouble?

Is Josh Pastner suddenly on the hot seat?

The Georgia Tech coach apparently wasn’t entirely forthcoming when he spoke to the NCAA about his former friend Ron Bell.

Bell, you may recall, made wildly false claims about Pastner sexually assaulting his girlfriend.

However the other shoe was Bell’s allegedly doing things for Pastner’s players that are against the NCAA’s rules and according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pastner was not forthcoming in a number of ways.

Read the article - it’s pretty in depth and not at all a good look for Pastner.

If he was, say, Rick Pitino in an early scandal, with a list of accomplishments, this probably wouldn't be a big deal.

But he’s not.

He was sliding at Memphis and at Georgia Tech, he’s only had one winning season, his first, has averaged just 16 wins a season over three seasons and is less than .500 overall at 48-53 (.475).

In other words, he was already vulnerable before this story came out.

If the NCAA - which warned him to tell the truth - punishes him, we’re guessing that Georgia Tech would fire him for cause, thus avoiding his buyout.

If they do fire him, Tech’s options are probably limited. They can hire someone who is out currently, probably because he struggled in his last job, or maybe take a flyer on someone like the Citadel’s Dugger Baucom who would at least be entertaining as hell (interesting point about Duggar: he had a heart condition which forced him to give up law enforcement for a less stressful profession. How the hell does coaching qualify?)

Or maybe a flashy young assistant who is widely held in high regard. Someone who has shown recruiting chops and who is widely seen as intelligent and immensely promising. Someone who played for and then worked for an acknowledged master coach, someone who maybe played point guard on a national championship team who grew up in a major city who would be comfortable in Atlanta.

Can’t imagine where they’d find one of those.