Josh Pastner bickers with Louisville fans in defense of Memphis players
Memphis coach Josh Pastner exchanged some heated words with Louisville fans after his No. 24 Tigers upset the 12th-ranked Cardinals 73-67 on their home court Thursday night.
Louisville fans apparently didn't like the way Pastner and his team reacted to what was probably the biggest win of Pastner's tenure at Memphis.
Pastner apparently thought some of the comments he heard about his players were off base.
Pastner told them "You grow up! We have a perfect APR score!" Was in response, he said, to L'ville fans calling his players thugs on way out
— L. Jason Smith (@TheCAJasonSmith) January 10, 2014
But the bickering apparently continued even after Pastner left the court. A writer for CardinalSports.com tweeted that Pastner exchanged words with the father of Louisville forward Stephan Van Tresse just before entering his postgame press conference and a Louisville police officer stepped in to calm the situation.
Pastner and SVT's Dad just got into it as the coach walked into his post-game presser. LMPD officer Dale came out to cool things down. — Matthew Willinger (@MattWillinger) January 10, 2014
During his press conference, Pastner downplayed the exchanges and compared Louisville fans to Memphis fans, which probably didn't help his cause on the Louisville side of things.
"I think Louisville fans are tremendous," Pastner said. "They're like Memphis fans. They love their team.
"The only thing I ever get sensitive on is if anybody ever says our guys are low class or anything in that manner. We have a perfect APR score. ...Say I'm the worst coach in the world. Say I can't coach zone. I'm the worst press coach. I look like I'm 13. I should be fired. I'm the worst this. I'm the worst that, but the thing that gets to me is if you say our kids (are bad) cause we've done a great job. That's been a point of emphasis."
Pastner was asked about the behavior of his players whose celebration after the victory apparently irked some in the arena.
"Here is the thing, we won the game," Pastner said. "Our guys are going to have some enthusiasm. None of our guys did anything that was, we won the game. There was no extra celebration or anything. We won the game."
Louisville coach Rick Pitino wasn't asked about Memphis' reaction to the win during his postgame press conference and he made no mention of it.
Memphis will host Louisville in the rematch March 1.
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is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
