Gary Parrish

Joe Jackson committed to Memphis as expected Friday, meaning Josh Pastner now has two top 10 recruits from the Class of 2010 despite the fact that he's still yet to coach his first game.

"I wanted to stay in the city and be a part of the Memphis tradition," Jackson said at a makeshift press conference held outside of the Finch Center practice facility on the University of Memphis campus. "I'm excited."

Jackson is a 5-foot-11 point guard from White Station High in Memphis. The National Hoops Report ranks him No. 9 in the Class of 2010. Will Barton, a 6-5 guard from Baltimore, is the other elite prospect already committed to Memphis. The National Hoops Report ranks him No. 6 in the Class of 2010.

Worth noting: Rivals.com updated its school rankings Friday. It listed Memphis' class of Joe Jackson, Will Barton and Antonio Barton (yes, they're brothers) as the nation's third-best class, behind only Ohio State's and Syracuse's.

Also worth noting: Among the people who attended Jackson's press conference was Tarik Black, a 6-7 forward from Ridgeway High in Memphis. Rivals.com ranks him as the 47th-best prospect in the Class of 2010. He's uncommitted and still considering a number of schools -- among them Memphis, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Alabama.

Jackson's commitment means six of the National Hoops Report's top 10 prospects are now committed.

Here's an updated list:

1. Harrison Barnes (uncommitted)
2. Perry Jones (committed to Baylor )
3. Brandon Knight (uncommitted)
4. Jared Sullinger (committed to Ohio State )
5. Fab Melo (committed to Syracuse )
6. Will Barton (committed to Memphis )
7. Reggie Bullock (committed to North Carolina )
8. Adreian Payne (uncommitted)
9. Joe Jackson (committed to Memphis )
10. Tony Mitchell (uncommitted)

An MRI performed Friday showed that Memphis forward Angel Garcia has a torn ACL that will force him to miss the entire 2009-10 season, Tiger coach Josh Pastner confirmed to CBSSports.com.

Garcia tore the ACL in a Thursday workout.

"It was just one of those weird things," Pastner said. "There was no contact. He didn't jump. His knee just gave out on him, and I just feel sick for the young man."

Garcia is a highly rated recruit from the Class of 2008 who was forced to sit out last season because of academics. The 6-foot-11 forward was expected to play a major role this season given the lack of big men on the Memphis roster. Junior college transfer Will Coleman and senior Pierre Henderson-Niles are the only conventional post players currently in the program.

"We've got a good nucleus," Pastner said. "But we don't have any depth."

Josh Pastner is about to land another elite recruit.

This time it's a local product.

"I am committing TONIGHT at the Larry Finch Center at 6:30 pm," likely McDonald's All-American Joe Jackson posted on his Facebook page early Friday. "Come support me and one of the biggest decisions [of] my life. ... Kansas, TN, Memphis. What [is it going to] be?"

For those unfamiliar, the Larry Finch Center -- technically the Larry O. Finch Center -- is the practice facility on the University of Memphis campus. So it should come as no surprise that multiple sources have told CBSSports.com that Jackson will verbally commit to Memphis tonight (over Kansas and Tennessee) and provide what should be a wild scene in his hometown.

"Joe loves the city and he wants to be a Tiger," one source told CBSSports.com. "He was always going to be a Tiger."

Thus, this is hardly a shock. Things have been headed this way for months, honestly, and Jackson spent much of the past week dropping hints on Facebook . Even so, it's still huge news in the recruiting world if only because it means Pastner will now have commitments from two top 10 prospects from the Class of 2010 despite the fact that the 31-year-old former Arizona player is still yet to coach his first game.

Serious question: Has something like this ever happened?

"The closest thing would be John Calipari [getting] John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins [this past offseason before ever coaching a game at Kentucky], but obviously Cal has coached [games] before," said longtime recruiting analyst Justin Young, who runs the National Hoops Report. "But other than that, no sir."

Memphis will now become the nation's only school with commitments from two Top 10 prospects.

One of those commitments is Will Barton, a 6-foot-5 guard from Baltimore.

The National Hoops Report ranks him sixth in the Class of 2010.

The other is obviously Joe Jackson, a 5-11 point guard from Memphis.

The National Hoops Report ranks him ninth in the Class of 2010.

Former Kentucky student Matt Pilgrim is expected to visit Memphis Sunday and could announce a transfer to the C-USA school in the next week, a source close to Pilgrim told CBSSports.com on Saturday.

An initial attempt to reach Pilgrim for comment was unsuccessful.

This development is interesting because Pilgrim transferred from Hampton to Kentucky after the 2007-08 season, sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules and was expected to play for the Wildcats in 2009-10. But that all changed when John Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky, oversigned and thus needed to move players out of the program to allow his six incoming freshmen to enroll.

One of the players moved out was Pilgrim.

He did not want to leave.

And that's one of the reasons why a source close to Pilgrim told CBSSports.com that Calipari is working with new Memphis coach Josh Pastner to make this likely transition go as smoothly as possible. According to a source close to Pilgrim, Calipari and Pastner have been in contact, and Calipari has told Pastner he will not only release Pilgrim to Memphis, but that he will back Pilgrim's expected request of a waiver that, if granted, would allow Pilgrim to play for the Tigers this season.

Under normal circumstances, Pilgrim would have to sit out another year before becoming eligible in 2010-11. But the hope is that the NCAA recognizes that Pilgrim is only transferring for a second time because he was nudged out of Kentucky. In other words, Pilgrim had no say in the matter. And a source close to Pilgrim said there is precedent for the NCAA to grant a waiver under these circumstances.

Pilgrim's connection to Memphis is through Tiger assistant Glynn Cyprien.

Cyprien spent the past two years on Billy Gillispie's staff at UK.

He worked in practices with Pilgrim all last season.

Shawn Taggart told his "friends" last month on Facebook that he was leaving school. He subsequently said it meant nothing, of course. But telling "white chocolate" that "its ova wit" always seemed like a good sign that the Memphis forward would remain in the NBA Draft, for better or worse. And so it should come as no surprise -- it didn't surprise first-year coach Josh Pastner, at least -- that Taggart has hired an agent.

"We would've loved to have Shawn back, but I think we still have a good core group," Pastner told CBSSports.com by phone. "Now we're just going to have to fight and claw and scrap and just be a tough team, and we're going to have to coach them up. There's no question. We're going to have to coach them up. But this is a great opportunity for a lot of guys who were role players last year. Now they have to really step up."

On the surface, Taggart's departure makes little sense because he has no chance of being selected in the first round, and it's doubtful that he'll be picked at all. But it's important to note that the 6-foot-10 forward has already graduated, and that he's 24 years-old. So leaving now is a reasonable decision if the goal is to simply earn a paycheck somewhere, ASAP.

Taggart's departure means the top four scorers from last season's team are gone.

Pastner will only have five returning scholarship players.

In other draft news, LSU's Tasmin Mitchell, Arizona's Nic Wise and Miami's Dwayne Collins have all announced that they will withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to school. The deadline to withdraw is next Monday.

Memphis has endured a lot of negative headlines over the past week.

But now it's time for a positive one.

Because the Tigers just committed a consensus top 10 prospect.

"Me and my brother are ecstatic," Will Barton told CBSSports.com by phone on Friday night, not long after he and his brother, Antonio Barton, committed to first-year coach Josh Pastner during an unofficial visit for an Elite Camp. "We have a strong relationship with Coach Pastner and Coach Cyp (assistant Glynn Cyprien). It just feels like a family atmosphere down here."

Will Barton is a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from Baltimore.

Scout.com ranks him as the No. 1 shooting guard in the Class of 2010.

Antonio Barton is a 6-2 combo guard from Baltimore.

He is unranked on the national level but considered a solid mid-major prospect.

At least a dozen other schools were pursuing Will Barton -- among them Syracuse, Maryland and Kentucky.

"I think it came down to Memphis working the angle of taking both brothers," said Scout.com's Evan Daniels. "Kentucky was probably second (in the race), but I think they only wanted to take Will and Memphis wanted to take them both."

Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner confirmed to CBSSports.com on Thursday that he was never told the school had been charged with major NCAA rules violations when he accepted the job last month.

"I was unaware," Pastner said by phone from his office. "That's the truth."

Memphis received a letter alleging violations in January.

Pastner was hired nearly three months later.

So no, it does not appear athletic director R.C. Johnson was forthcoming with some crucial information when he offered Pastner the opportunity to replace John Calipari. But the good news for the first-year coach is that it seems highly unlikely that he'll be affected in any tangible way by the possible violations that happened while he was still an assistant at Arizona.

In other words, this is about the Tigers' past, not the Tigers' future.

So while it's possible Memphis might have its 2008 Final Four appearance banished from the NCAA record books, there is no indication whatsoever that a postseason ban, TV ban or any scholarship losses are on the way. That's a key point Pastner must stress going forward, if only because opposing schools will undoubtedly use the threat of harsh penalties in an attempt to scare prospects away from Memphis.

"I've been told by our athletic director and other people in the administration that none of this will affect the current team or any future team," Pastner said. "This is all about [the 2007-08 season]."

Josh Pastner has asked the Denver Nuggets for permission to speak with Jack Murphy about a job on the Memphis staff, a source close to the program told CBSSports.com on Wednesday.

Murphy is a scout for the Nuggets, a close friend of Pastner's, a former Arizona manager and the son-in-law of Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood. He is respected as a tremendous workout guy, someone Denver coach George Karl values greatly, which could make it tough for Pastner to lure Murphy away from the NBA.

But he's trying.

Meantime, former Rice head coach Willis Wilson and former Kentucky assistant Glynn Cyprien were on the Memphis campus Tuesday interviewing for jobs, two sources added. Wilson was the head coach at Rice for 16 seasons. Cyprien was with Billy Gillispie at Kentucky the past two seasons, and was the primary recruiter of Daniel Orton, a 6-foot-9 center ranked as the 12th-best prospect in the Class of 2009.

Orton told Scout.com's Evan Daniels last week that he might re-open his recruitment.

He is expected to make a decision on whether to stay with UK or look elsewhere in the coming weeks.

Baylor assistant Jerome Tang has decided to remain on Scott Drew's staff and not move to Memphis, a source told CBSSports.com on Thursday. Consequently, new Memphis coach Josh Pastner will continue to operate as a one-man show because he currently has no assistants ... or even a secretary.

"I'm doing it all," Pastner said by phone late Thursday.

Yes, John Calipari even took his office manager (Lunetha Pryor) to Kentucky with him, along with assistants John Robic, Orlando Antigua and Rod Strickland. In other words, the basketball office at Memphis is pretty much empty as the April recruiting period gets underway, and it'll stay that way, at least for the time being, thanks to Tang's decision to remain at Baylor one day after interviewing at Memphis .

To put this into perspective, understand that most schools have three coaches on the road right now recruiting.

Meantime, Memphis has one coach ... period.

Memphis failed in its attempt to hire Baylor's Scott Drew.

Now the new Memphis coach is trying to hire one of Drew's assistants.

A source told CBSSports.com that Josh Pastner interviewed Jerome Tang on the Memphis campus Wednesday and offered the Baylor assistant a job. According to the source, Tang flew back to Waco, Texas, on Wednesday night and is mulling the offer. A decision is expected soon considering the April recruiting period begins Thursday at noon.

Tang just finished his sixth season at Baylor.

First Xavier Henry asked for a release from his national letter of intent with Memphis.

Then DeMarcus Cousins decommitted from Memphis and committed to Kentucky

Now Nolan Dennis wants a release from Memphis, too.

"We just want people to know that we are not going to attend Memphis because we were going to attend Memphis because of (John) Calipari," Carol Dennis, the mother of Nolan Dennis, told Scout.com's Evan Daniels on Wednesday. “We are going to wait and see what we are going to do from here.

"I think Nolan wants to go to Kentucky; I’m not for sure," she added. "But I know he’s not going to go to Memphis."

Just last week, Memphis had a five-player class some considered the best in the county, but Calipari's departure has killed any chance of it materializing. Junior college standouts Will Coleman and Darnell Dodson are the only Memphis recruits who haven't publicly decommitted.

Meantime, Josh Pastner isn't sleeping.

Literally.

The new Memphis coach has not slept in days.

"I haven't slept since I got the job (on Monday)," Pastner told me this afternoon. "I've been up 48 hours straight."

Yikes.

Pastner said he plans to be in bed by 10 on Wednesday night, get a solid six or seven hours of sleep and be ready to hit the road recruiting Thursday. He'll start in the Memphis area, where Class of 2010 star Joe Jackson (of White Station High) is a clear priority.

Any honorable reporter gives credit where credit is due.

So let me take this opportunity to congratulate Megan Calipari on her first big scoop.

JOSH PASTNER IS THE NEW COACH AT MEMPHIS!! YAY!!

That's what John Calipari's daughter, Megan, typed as a status update on her Facebook page Monday, which set off a whirlwind of speculation and phone calls, among them one from Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson to former Memphis coach John Calipari.

"R.C. called me," Calipari told CBSSports.com by phone early Wednesday. "He said, 'Do you know your daughter is on Facebook writing about Josh?"

Turns out, Johnson and Calipari had been in constant contact during the 24 hours leading up to Pastner's hiring. Ultimately, Johnson told Calipari he planned to tab Pastner as the Tigers' next coach after the school's interest in various other candidates was not returned.

"I was ecstatic," Calipari said.

So ecstatic, in fact, that he immediately called to tell his wife, Ellen.

Ellen was so ecstatic that she told her youngest daughter, Megan.

And Megan was so ecstatic that she told the world via Facebook.

JOSH PASTNER IS THE NEW COACH AT MEMPHIS!! YAY!!

"I called her and said, 'What are you doing!?!'" Calipari said. "She told me she was just saying yay for Josh."

Calipari learned of Megan's breaking news because of Johnson, who learned of it because Megan's status update had been copied and pasted on message boards, all of which was an eye-opening experience for the Calipari family. "You know what Megan said?" Calipari asked. "She said 'How gross is it that the whole world is watching what I do?'"

Note to Megan: This is the world in which you and your sister (Erin) now live.

Case in point, there are Facebook pages title We (heart) Megan Calipari and We love the Calipari sisters!!!

Both Erin and Megan are in college -- one at UMass, the other at Memphis.

"I told them that they have to get off Facebook," Calipari said. "This stuff is crazy."

Anyway, if you're reading, nice work, Megan.

Congrats on the scoop.

(And please shoot me an email if you hear anything about the Xavier hire.)

DETROIT -- Josh Pastner will be the next Memphis coach, a source close to the program has told CBSSports.com.

A news conference is scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET.

Pastner is known as an elite recruiter from his time at Arizona, where he played for and assisted Lute Olson before joining John Calipari's staff last offseason. This is his first head coaching job. He is 31 years-old.

Before turning to Pastner, Memphis pursued Tim Floyd (USC), Mike Anderson (Missouri), Scott Drew (Baylor) and Leonard Hamilton (Florida State) to varying degrees, both formally and informally. Also, sources told CBSSports.com that officials working on behalf of Memphis reached out to UMass coach Derek Kellogg early Monday, but the officials were told Kellogg would not take the job because he felt loyalty toward his alma mater (UMass) and was concerned about going around good friend and former teammate Tony Barbee of UTEP, whom Calipari had endorsed as his successor.

And that's how Memphis got to Pastner.

Details of the deal in terms of money and years remain unclear.

Here's Friday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: How about a list of coaches or your views on who Arizona may consider to replace Lute Olson? ... I think Tennessee's Bruce Pearl would be a good candidate (after he buys a suit).

-- UKFan68

A Kentucky fan trying to get Pearl out of the SEC East, huh?

You sneaky devil you.

Seriously, what Pearl has done at Tennessee in three seasons is remarkable, so you'll get no argument from me about whether he'd be good at Arizona. But as I said minutes after Thursday's news came down, the two obvious top candidates to replace Olson on a permanent basis should be Gonzaga's Mark Few and Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon.

Would either come right now?

No, not at this minute.

Both have Final Four-caliber teams and neither would relocate less than two weeks before Arizona's first exhibition. So what that means is that the Wildcats will likely use an interim this season (it'll be assistant Russ Pennell, according to a source) and then conduct a national search that should start and stop with Few or Dixon.

You want some other possibilities?

VCU's Anthony Grant would be intriguing, as would Washington State's Tony Bennett. And if athletic director Jim Livengood wanted to "keep it in the family" he could tab former Arizona player and assistant Josh Pastner, who is now at Memphis. Obviously, Pastner is only 31 and without head coaching experience. But if you think he's going to be good (and just about everybody does) then why not go for it if you are compelled to move quickly and strongly?

I mean, Billy Donovan was 28 when he got his first head coaching gig.

John Calipari was 29.

Those two have done OK, haven't they?

But again, I'm just throwing out Grant, Bennett and Pastner as back-up plans, because the first two options should be Few and Dixon. Both are experienced and proven winners with west-coast ties (Few has been in the WCC forever and is from Oregon; Dixon is from the Los Angeles-area and assisted Ben Howland at Northern Arizona in the mid-1990s) and still young enough (Few is 45, Dixon 42) to where it's reasonable to think they'll be going strong for at least another 15 years. And, yes, I honestly believe one of them (if not both) would accept an offer after this season under certain circumstances because they will both be facing revamped rosters in 2009-10, making it an ideal time to leave if they were ever going to leave (Gonzaga will lose Jeremy Pargo, Josh Heytvelt, Micah Downs and perhaps Austin Daye after this season; Pitt will lose Sam Young, Levance Fields and perhaps DeJuan Blair).

Now I know what you're thinking, Gonzaga and Pitt fans.

You're thinking that Few and Dixon have already turned down multiple opportunities to leave, that they love their jobs and wouldn't mind retiring from their current positions. I acknowledge all of that to be true. But you must understand Arizona is a different animal, one of the top 10 programs in America, and that it would be difficult for either to pass on this gig if they felt comfortable with the administration and received the money Arizona is capable of dishing out.

As for Few specifically, at what point does he become bored killing folks in the WCC? You’ve got to think he'll want to try something new at some point, and Arizona would be a great situation, about as good a situation as would ever present itself. So those would be the reasons for Few to leave Gonzaga, to face a new challenge and see if he can run one of the nation's power programs.

And trust me, he'd be great at Arizona.

But so would Dixon.

And to the Pitt fans who have already emailed to inform me that if Dixon was in a hurry to get back west he would've taken the California job after last season, I'll just ask whether you ever considered whether it's possible Dixon rejected California because he knew Arizona would be opening soon? It would be crazy to take the Cal job if you thought you could get Arizona a year or two later, wouldn't it? And as I pointed out in Thursday's column, nobody in basketball circles really thought Olson was going to last more than one more year, meaning it's pretty safe to assume Dixon saw this day coming and has long known he'd be an obvious candidate.

Anyway, that's my long answer to a short question.

Arizona should hire an interim coach, get through this season and then pursue Few or Dixon.

Assuming the Wildcats could get one of them, the program would be set for 15 years.

And then these tumultuous times would seem like a distant memory.

Josh Pastner, as expected, is leaving Arizona for Memphis.

A source close to the situation told CBSSports.com on Thursday morning that the 30-year-old assistant has agreed in principle to make the move and should be formally introduced in the coming days, soon as everything is signed and official. In the meantime, count this as a huge coup for John Calipari, who has hit a home run by luring the Arizona graduate to replace Derek Kellogg on the Memphis staff.

Kellogg, of course, left Memphis to become the head coach at UMass.

So if you're keeping track, Calipari's revamped staff will feature Pastner, John Robic and either Rod Strickland or a yet-to-be-determined member. Meanwhile, Lute Olson's staff will feature three new assistants. They are Russ Pennell, Mike Dunlap and a yet-to-be-determined member who will essentially fill the void left by the departure of Pastner.