Get to know UCSB’s (Jewish) Head Basketball Coach Joe Pasternack

For eight years, Joe Pasternack has served as the Head Coach for the Gaucho’s men’s basketball team. In his time coaching, Pasternack has dutifully led his team to dozens of successes, including two NCAA Tournament appearances, two championships, a Big West Coach of the Year award, and 148 wins in the first seven years of his time coaching at UCSB. With a winning percentage of .685, Coach Pasternack represents a significant point of pride for not only Santa Barbara’s basketball fans, but also its Jewish community. 

Originally from Louisiana, Pasternack was raised in a reform Jewish family. By the time he had become a Bar Mitzvah, he had already known that he was destined for basketball in one way or another. In the fifth grade, Pasternack determined he would become a collegiate basketball coach, knowing that he was too “vertically challenged” to participate in the sport directly. 

Pasternack got his start in coaching at Indiana University 25 years ago, where he served as a student manager under famed head coach Bobby Knight for the Hoosiers men’s basketball team. After graduating in 1999, he spent a decade working in professional coaching positions at UC Berkeley and for the University of New Orleans Privateers. In 2011, he was hired by the longtime basketball powerhouse University of Arizona, where he was eventually promoted to the position of Associate Head Coach. The team recorded a 174-47 record during the six years he spent there. In 2017, Pasternack was hired by Chancellor Yang and the then-Athletic Director John McCutcheon and he has been here ever since. 

Jews have had a prominent role in basketball since its birth at the end of the 19th century, inaugurated by the children of European Jewish immigrants in Springfield, Massachusetts. By the mid-20th century, Jewish rosters were almost entirely made up of Jewish players. Some of the biggest names within the sport included basketball greats such as Ossie Schectman, Nat Holman, and Sammy Kaplan. After World War II, there was a major turning point within the sport as Jews began to shift toward roles in coaching, administrative, and broadcasting roles at both the professional and collegiate level. Today, this assembly of Jewish coaches includes NBA legend Larry Brown, the coach of the number one ranked Auburn Men’s Basketball team, Bruce Pearl, and of course our very own Joseph Pasternack.  Pasternack is a proud member of the Jewish Coaches Association which presents the Red Auerbach Award and holds annual events at the NBA and WNBA Final Four. 

Pasternack has held fast to his Jewish identity, raising his son and daughter Jewish with his wife and Santa Barbara Hillel board member Lindsay Pasternack. His children’s favorite holiday is Hanukkah, making it his favorite by default. Pasternack has stated that to him Judaism is about “family, culture, and being proud of being Jewish.”