Ex-Arizona center Emmanuel Stephen could have a big opportunity under Josh Pastner at UNLV

Pastner, hired last month to take over at UNLV, pulled in former Arizona center Emmanuel Stephen as his first addition with the Rebels, giving him a potential replacement for departing UNLV center Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry – who is transferring to play for Bibby at Sacramento State.

Arizona doesn’t get anything in return, but the Wildcats played Stephen only 24 minutes all season, leading to his entrance into the transfer portal last week. The Wildcats could still be loaded inside next season if they return centers Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka next season to play alongside five-star freshman power forward Koa Peat.

Cherry, who once played at Phoenix St. Mary’s High School, could receive the same starting role he had at UNLV under Bibby at Sac State, but Stephen might get an even bigger opportunity with Pastner’s Rebels.

Pastner has just four players remaining from UNLV’s roster this season, losing transfers that included Cherry and 7-foot freshman center Pape N’Diaye. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, former UNLV coach Kevin Kruger often characterized N’Diaye as a developmental piece.

UA coach Tommy Lloyd described Stephen similarly. Stephen had even planned to redshirt this season but pulled out of it in December after his minor knee issue healed and Krivas suffered a setback with his foot/ankle injury that wound up sidelining him for the season after eight games.

“When you see him, your eyes are on him, right?” Lloyd said after Stephen made his debut against Samford on Dec. 18. “There’s always something happening. He’s kind of a whirling dervish out there, which is exciting because there’s so much potential.”

While showing considerable upside with his athletic 7-foot frame, Stephen also struggled to keep his enthusiasm within the boundaries of referees’ whistles but he commanded the respect of his teammates. Veteran UA forward Trey Townsend said Stephen was “one of the hardest-working guys I know,” giving full effort no matter when or where he’s on the court.

“You gotta love E-man,” Townsend said.

If nothing else, Stephen’s personality could be a match for Pastner, whose energy and enthusiasm was well-known at Arizona as a walk-on player who completed his UA undergraduate degree in two and a half years.

“He has the energy and charisma to engage the Las Vegas community like no other,” former Villanova coach Jay Wright, once a UNLV assistant under Rollie Massimino, said of Pastner in a statement.

After completing his playing career at UA, Pastner went on to become an aide for former UA coach Lute Olson before leaving in 2008 to become an assistant at Memphis under John Calipari. He became Memphis’ head coach a year later when Calipari left for Kentucky, then spent seven years leading the Tigers and another seven as Georgia Tech’s head coach.

The ACC Coach of the Year in 2016-17, Pastner was fired at Georgia Tech after the 2022-23 season and spent the past two season in a television role. But when he jumped back into coaching last month, Pastner spoke of what he had learned from other programs on the floor and in the NIL world, implying that will make him an even better coach at UNLV.

“This is going to be getting the whole city back involved and getting everybody to come here to help build the program back to where we want to get it,” Pastner said. “Obviously, coaching and college athletics has changed in the last couple years just because of NIL and the portal. So you’ve got to attack that the right way and deal with that. We know how important that is.”