CBS: Why did Memphis coach Josh Pastner fire his brother-in-law midseason?

per Parrish:

(Pastner and Matrisciano are married to twin sisters.)

So what happened?

What caused Pastner to terminate his trainer (and brother-in-law) midseason?

Here's the deal, I'm told: After the 24th-ranked Tigers missed 15 of the 17 3-pointers they attempted in Saturday's loss to Cincinnati at FedExForum, Pastner was worried his players might have tired legs and suggested Matrisciano work only on the players' upper-bodies heading into Thursday's game at 12th-ranked Louisville. Matrisciano rejected that idea and didn't appreciate Pastner telling him how to do his job. Pastner understood that but also didn't care. He told Matrisciano again that the players were not to do any legwork this week, at which point Matrisciano responded by essentially telling Pastner that he'd either work the players out the way he sees fit or not at all.

Back and forth they went.

Ultimately, Pastner decided to go with not at all.

He then terminated his brother-in-law, basically on the spot.

So now the man known as "Hell's Trainer" is unemployed, and the Tigers are without the person who has been in charge of their conditioning for the past two seasons. And family functions? Yeah, those might be a little awkward going forward, too.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...-josh-pastner-fire-his-brotherinlaw-midseason

Go Gophers!!

Moral of the story, if you are a player or an assistant coach and the head coach tells you to do something, you follow directions. Can't say I feel sorry for the trainer.

GameDay said:

Moral of the story, if you are a player or an assistant coach and the head coach tells you to do something, you follow directions. Can't say I feel sorry for the trainer.

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Yep. Pastner is his boss. He didn't obey orders (after more than one request). I'd expect to get fired if I disobeyed my boss on multiple occasions.

GameDay said:

Moral of the story, if you are a player or an assistant coach and the head coach tells you to do something, you follow directions. Can't say I feel sorry for the trainer.

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Agree that it is hard to feel sorry for him. Maybe he figured he had more leeway to disregard his superior because of the family relationship? If so, turned out to be a mistake.

Hard to feel sorry for him but also stupid by Pastner. If you bring in specialists who specialize in something you know little about (strength is one. nutrition is another), you need to folow their guidance.

Winnipegopher said:

Hard to feel sorry for him but also stupid by Pastner. If you bring in specialists who specialize in something you know little about (strength is one. nutrition is another), you need to folow their guidance.

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At the end of the day, the coach is the one who will be fired if the team doesn't perform well enough. I don't know the brother-in-law's background is, but his decisions might be geared towards longer-term overall athletic condition while the coach was more worried about fatigue in an individual upcoming game. If the coach has a problem with decisions of his underlings, I'd much rather see him deal with it than wait until he gets criticized for his record to say "its not my fault, they made bad decisions". You might be right, it may be stupid, but if so, the coach will be the one who pays the price for it.

Winnipegopher said:

Hard to feel sorry for him but also stupid by Pastner. If you bring in specialists who specialize in something you know little about (strength is one. nutrition is another), you need to folow their guidance.

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It's hard to know for sure what happened. If this is a regular occurrence (Pastner always telling him what to do), then I can see his brother in law just getting fed up with it and I wouldn't blame him.

But if it was more of a one-time thing that really escalated, then I don't feel bad for him at all.