While on the road recruiting for his new head coaching gig at Georgia Tech, Josh Pastner found himself in Las Vegas attending an AAU tournament.
It was an early morning game in 2016, and one player stood out among the rest: Jose Alvarado, a scrappy guard from New York who’s evolved into a fan favorite for the New Orleans Pelicans as they trail the Phoenix Suns 3-2 in the first round of the NBA playoffs, with Game 6 in New Orleans on Thursday.
“He was on an AAU team that had a lot of high-level guys, and it was an 8 a.m. game, so nobody wanted to be there,” Pastner, a former UA player and assistant coach, said. “They weren’t playing hard, and the one guy that was in the guys’ faces for not playing hard was Alvarado. He was the only guy who came to play and he was playing his tail off. I just said, ‘I gotta have that guy.’”
At Georgia Tech, Alvarado became a defensive specialist, finishing his career with the third-most steals (226) in program history. Now Alvarado — also known as the “Ninja” — is tasked with guarding the “Point God” — Suns star Chris Paul. Over the last two games, Alvarado has forced Paul into a pair of 8-second violations in the backcourt.
“His favorite player growing up was Chris Paul,” Pastner said of Alvarado. “His last two years in the ACC, he led the league in steals. The only other player to do that before him was Chris Paul.”
Pastner spoke to “Spears and Ali” on ESPN Tucson this week about coaching Alvarado in college, the “Ninja’s” backcourt tactics, and the current state of the UA basketball program:
How is it for you seeing one of your former players become a fan favorite in the NBA and have a role for a playoff team?
A: “It’s a great story with Jose Alvarado. When I got the job here, he was really my first recruit. Nobody really recruited him. He was a small guard, unathletic, wasn’t quick, wasn’t fast, but he had toughness. A lot of people thought when I offered him a scholarship, I was crazy because I offered him. They said, ‘You’re in the ACC. Do you know where you’re at? Do you know what kind of league you’re coaching in?’ It was my first year getting in, but they said, ‘What are you doing offering this guy?’ He wasn’t a top 100 player or highly recruited, but I knew he was around winning.
“Everything he did, he won. He won in high school, he won in AAU ball, he won in middle school — he just won, and he was tough. I knew in the ACC, which I think is the best college basketball league — I mean, it’s a monster league … and it’s loaded and you need great players. I also knew at Georgia Tech, we weren’t getting those McDonald’s All-Americans. Like when you play Duke or North Carolina, they’re lining eight, nine or 10 All-Americans on the roster.
“So I needed somebody right next to me, and when that national anthem is being played and we’re looking right across at that opponent, and the sweat is coming down and they got eight five-star guys and eight potential first-round draft picks, I need the guy next to me to go at their jugular vein and not be afraid of their status or what they’re ranked. … I knew Jose was tough, hard-nosed and was a guy that would go right at them. … He didn’t have a chip on his shoulder, he had a boulder on his shoulder, and he just fit what I was about. Just tough, hard-nosed, winning 50-50 balls, being the first to the floor, and he’s echoed that into the NBA.”
Alvarado is renowned for his ability to hide in the backcourt and surprise ball-handlers in the backcourt and poke the ball away for steals; did he do that at Georgia Tech or is this a new defensive tactic?
A: “You ever seen that show, ‘Kids Do the Darndest Things?’ … I’m telling you, Alvarado did that all the time here. He would do it all the time and I used to tell him, ‘What are you doing? Get your butt back!’ And he would hide in the corner, and I couldn’t tell you how many times he would get steals. I used to sit there and go, ‘There’s no way that would work in the NBA.’ I always said, ‘What are you doing?’ But now I see it works in the NBA. … It’s really like ‘Kids Do the Darndest Things’ with him hiding in the corner and getting steals. It’s fascinating, and that’s his deal. He’s just a competitor. That’s what it’s about. Being a competitor and competing. That’s what he does. That’s a lesson for a lot of players. Look, Alvarado is a really good player, but he latched on because of toughness, hard work, defense and the grit and grind that it takes, and he’s a coach’s dream.”
Two-part question: This year is the 25th anniversary of Arizona’s national championship team, so how do you look back on being a part of that team? And what’s your assessment of the job Tommy Lloyd has done with the program?
A: “Man, time flies. To win a national championship, the longer you’re in this profession, you’re just grateful for understanding that it’s just rarefied air to understand what we did 25 years ago. The ‘Cardiac Cats’ is what they called us. To win the national championship, which I think to this day is the greatest tournament run in the history of the NCAA. We beat three No. 1 seeds, three winning programs — Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky — and it’s never been done before, where three No. 1 seeds were beaten. … There really should be a 30-for-30 (documentary) for what that team did and how we won that championship, considering the closeness and how we were close to not even being there. … Regarding Tommy Lloyd, I’ve told this to Coach Lloyd … there’s no better time to ask your athletic director for a lifetime extension, because for your first year to get 30-plus wins, National Coach of the Year (awards), Sweet 16, Pac-12 championship, Pac-12 Tournament championship — the only you can accomplish better than that is getting to the Final Four or national championship.
“Coach Tommy Lloyd did an incredible job, and all the credit and praise he’s gotten is well-deserved. I would assume the program is gonna be pretty good moving forward. Arizona is what it is today because of Lute Olson. Lute Olson not only built something that’s a basketball program, but a university and city that was at ground zero. Even a guy like Sean Miller who had a tremendous deal of success and won a lot of games, but all of it can be translate to Lute Olson. None of that is possible without what Coach Olson had done. I always remind people and tell them, because sometimes time goes and people forget, but that program is an elite blueblood program due to Lute Olson. God rest his soul, he’s the greatest.”
