Josh Pastner contract pays nearly $1 million per year at UNLV

Memphis head coach Josh Pastner reacts after Arizona got a time out when he wanted a foul called on them during the second round of the NCAA Basketball Championships Friday, March 18, 2011at the BOK Center in Tulsa. Arizona won 77-75. Photo by Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

Josh Pastner will earn nearly $1 million per year for the next five years at UNLV, according to the contract he signed on Monday to become the new basketball coach for the university.

The university announced the hiring on Tuesday. The Sun acquired details of the contract, which includes an escalating salary structure and a wide range of bonuses and incentives.

Pastner will make a base salary of $500,000 this year, which is lower than the $775,000 that Kevin Kruger made in 2024-25, but Pastner’s pay will quickly jump to $1 million for the second and third years of his contract and then go up again to $1.15 million for the final two years.

That averages out to $960,000 per year, placing Pastner somewhere in the middle of the pack in relation to other Mountain West coaches.

Brian Dutcher makes an average of $2.5 million at San Diego State, while UNR's Steve Alford is at $1.5 million and New Mexico's Richard Pitino made $1.2 million this season. Niko Medved made $1.7 million at Colorado State this season before leaving for Minnesota, and Jerrod Calhoun made $1 million at Utah State before reportedly signing an extension on Tuesday that figures to give him a significant raise. The man who preceded Kruger at UNLV, current Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger, was paid $1.3 million per year.

There are plenty of perks included in Pastner's deal. The 47-year-old receives a signing bonus of $30,000, and the contract calls for him to be provided two cars (one for him and his spouse), a membership at a local country club, a suite at the Thomas & Mack Center for every home game and four tickets to every UNLV football home game.

There are also performance-based incentives, starting with $50,000 bonuses for reaching the Final Four and winning the national championship. A Mountain West regular-season title will earn Pastner $25,000, as will a conference tournament crown. An at-large NCAA bid nets $25,000.

A season that sees UNLV win 14 or more conference games will put another $10,000 in Pastner’s pocket, and he would get $25,000 for winning Mountain West Coach of the Year and $50,000 for a national coach of the year award.

If Pastner is poached by another school, UNLV will receive a significant buyout. It would cost Pastner (or the poaching school) $3 million in the first year, with that number decreasing by $250,000 each offseason.

If UNLV wants to fire Pastner before the deal expires, it will owe him 75% of his remaining salary for the length of the contract.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.