New Orleans Hires New Basketball Coach

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Joe Pasternack, an assistant coach at California since 2001, was hired on Monday by New Orleans as their men's basketball coach. <br/><br/>Pasternack was a finalist last year when

Monday, July 9th 2007, 3:26 pm

By: News On 6

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Joe Pasternack, an assistant coach at California since 2001, was hired on Monday by New Orleans as their men's basketball coach.

Pasternack was a finalist last year when UNO hired Texas A&M assistant Buzz Williams. Williams resigned his position Friday to take an assistant coaching job at Marquette.

Pasternack becomes the 11th head coach in UNO history and will inherit a team which returns four starters _ including Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and AP All-America selection Bo McCalebb _ from the 2006-07 team.

Pasternack, 30, a New Orleans native, was a student manager for Bob Knight at Indiana from 1995 through 1999. After graduating from Indiana, he spent two years assisting the Golden Bears in game preparation, film breakdown and other administrative duties. Pasternack was promoted to assistant coach in 2001.

In his 12-year basketball career, Pasternack has been a part of eight NCAA tournament teams.