Mark Patton: Hope Springs Eternal in Heart of UCSB's Joe Pasternack | Sports | Noozhawk

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Joe Pasternack is amid Finals Week, although there's no real finality to his work as the UC Santa Barbara men's basketball coach.

One season merely turns to the next in the blink of a shooting eye.

"It's constant," he told Noozhawk.

He just held his final spring workouts, sent his Gauchos to their final exams for the spring quarter, and then headed to Oklahoma City for Monday's Game Five of the NBA Finals.

Pasternack has two dogs in Monday's championship fight, which is tied at two games apiece in the best-of-seven series: the Ajay Mitchell of the Oklahoma City Thunder and T.J. McConnell of the Indiana Pacers.

Mitchell was his point guard at UCSB for three seasons. McConnell played the same position for Arizona a decade ago when Pasternack served on the Wildcats' staff.

"You're the general manager and you're the fund raiser," Pasternack said. "I have to raise every penny, recruit the kids, coach them, and manage the expectations of people.

"It's a 180-degree change in the job title from when I came here eight years ago."

But if it sounds like a complaint, be assured that it's not.

Pasternack's success in finding donors to remodel the Thunderdome proved that he was built for this kind of competition.

"I love the chase, so I love it," he said. "These are the rules now, and in business you have to adjust and go after it.

"Some have had to change their personality to deal with it, but I feel like the luckiest man in the world.

"I get to live in Santa Barbara and do this."

Watching the NBA Finals gives him a brief respite after a busy spring of recruiting and training.

"The guys are going home after finals, and then we'll have eight weeks of summer workouts starting July 7," Pasternack said. "They're going to be open to the public."

He's excited to showcase what's new in this latest reboot.

Four NCAA Division I transfers have been added to a freshman class that features 6-foot-6 Luke Zuffelato from Santa Barbara High School; C.J. Shaw from in Mojave High School in Las Vegas and 6-8 Michael Simcoe from Phoenix's Sandra Day O'Connor High.

They'll join six returning scholarship players -- a coup in itself, considering the transactional nature of college sports these days.

They include junior guard Jason Fontenet II, junior forwards Colin Smith and Koat Keat Tong; senior center Evans Kipruto, and sophomore guards Zion Sensley and Zachiah "ZZ" Clark.

"I think we have the most returners of anybody in our league," Pasternack said. "Retaining players was first and foremost our No. 1 priority when the season ended."

They all hit the court running during the postseason workouts.

"It was one of the best springs we've had," Pasternack said. "Colin Smith played healthy in only 18 of last year's 31 games, but he was awesome this spring.

"He's really changed his body and was fully healthy the entire time.

"And KK (Koat Keat Tong) made a huge amount of progress this spring.

"It was the first spring he's ever practiced basketball with us, when you really think about it, because he's always had to deal with a knee injury."

Pasternack took nothing for granted, however, in restocking his roster.

Injuries knocked his team down a few pegs after its NCAA tournament seasons of 2021 and 2023. The Gauchos finished seventh in the Big West Conference in 2024 and fifth last season.

"Ajay wasn't able to practice one day during his last season here, and it had a domino effect on us," he said.

"Injuries have derailed us the last two years and we just want to make sure that we have enough depth of experience."

He's taking full advantage of the NCAA's new scholarship limit, which has been expanded to 15 from 13.

The four players that he's plucked from the transfer portal are all Division I veterans: senior guard Aidan Mahaney from the University of Connecticut, junior guards Miro Little from Utah and Marvin McGhee IV from Cal State Bakersfield, and senior center Hosana Kitenge from the University of Louisiana.

"I'm really excited about these guards, and the big kid worked out with our guys and looked unbelievable," Pasternack gushed. "It's exciting to think of these guys playing with our returning players, like Jason Fontenet.

"Our two returning freshmen, Zion and ZZ, are looking really good, too."

Mahaney went for the gold ring after entering last year's transfer portal by signing with UConn, the two-time defending NCAA champion.

The 6-foot-3 guard had averaged nearly 14 points per game as both a freshman and sophomore at Saint Mary's to earn All-West Coast Conference first team honors both seasons.

"He can really score the ball and he has an incredible amount of confidence," Pasternack said. "We didn't recruit him out of high school because he was set on Saint Mary's for a long time, but we saw him a ton.

"He obviously had a great two years there and was then one of the hottest commodities in the portal.

"He visited Kentucky and UConn, which was coming off its two national titles, and he chose UConn."

But Mahaney envisions the NBA as his final destination. He figured his playing time with the Huskies of 12.3 minutes per game last season wasn't helping him get there.

"It is what I need to do," he said of his transfer to UCSB, former home of current NBA players Mitchell, Gabe Vincent of the Los Angeles Lakers and Miles Norris of the Boston Celtics.

And Cole Anderson, whose 47.4% shooting from the three-point line last season broke James Powell's Gaucho record of 46.7% (2007-2008), was invited to work out with the Lakers last week.

Little, a member of Finland's senior national team since age 17, is making UCSB his third college after having played one season at Baylor and two more at Utah.

He led the Utes last season with 96 assists but decided to transfer after they fired head coach Craig Smith.

"Miro is big, he's strong and he's versatile," Pasternack said. "He also has a lot of international basketball experience, just like Ajay had with Belgium.

"I recruited (Utah Jazz star) Lauri Markkanen to Arizona, and he's playing with Miro this summer on Finland's national team.

"Miro talked to Lauri, and I think that really helped in our recruitment of him. He wanted to make sure this next stop was his last stop."

His father, La Trice Little, has both played and officiated professional basketball in Finland. His mother, Kati Packalén, serves as the CEO of the Basketball Association of Finland.

"Miro comes from a real big basketball family," Pasternack said. "Our goal in this recruiting class was to find high-character guys that No. 1, care about getting a degree from UCSB, and No. 2, care about team.

"We wanted to find two-way players who can play offense and defense and are driven to compete for a championship ... Guys who are really hungry because of the situation they've come from.

"That's how we've been successful in the past, and Miro fits that."

McGhee showed his long-distance marksmanship against the Gauchos on Jan. 9, making 3-of-5 three-pointers while scoring 11 points in Bakersfield's 78-66 defeat at the Thunderdome.

He shot 47.1% from three (40-for-85) for the season.

"We needed some outside shooting, and he gives us that," Pasternack said. "But he's also 6-foot-6 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan and incredible upside.

"He's a two-way player who can shoot, score, defend and rebound.

"We feel like he's a versatile player who can play three different positions, and that gives us a lot of flexibility."

He plans to play a three-guard, two-forward offense next year.

"All these guys can come off ball screens," Pasternack said.

Kitenge, a powerfully built, 6-foot-8 senior, figures to be an anchor to that offense.

He received All-Sun Belt Conference honors after averaging 13.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for Louisiana during the 2023-2024 season. He missed all of last year with a torn Achilles tendon.

"It was a similar injury to Colin Smith's, except he did it in October -- two months earlier in the year than Colin," Pasternack said. "He had a physical and practiced with us this spring.

"He's gone from 275 pounds to 242, which is pretty incredible, and his attention to detail has been excellent."

Even before the injury, former Louisiana coach Bob Marlin said Kitenge "improved from start to finish as much as any player I've coached."

His versatility fits the mold of the recruits that UCSB pursued this offseason.

"He's got an incredible motor defensively, can shoot threes, score in the post, drive the ball and he can really pass it, too," Pasternack said. "But what I like most about him is how hard he plays.

"On top of everything, he talks on the court. He's such a great young man."

Kitenge wasn't the only newcomer who worked out with the Gauchos this spring. Shaw graduated early from Mojave High so he could enroll at UCSB for the spring quarter.

"He's been here and able to practice with the team," Pasternack said. "It's been great having guys like Jason Fontenet and Colin Smith, the leaders of our team, teaching him the ropes and giving him such a huge head start."

Developing talent, he noted, can be more important than having it transfer to you.

"Basketball is a game of habit," Pasternack said. "Everyone plays a different offense and a different defense, and it's not easy for a transfer to learn a new habit.

"We didn't want to have to teach 14 whole new players."

He plans to mix and match when it all starts again in three weeks.