FIU Head Men’s Basketball Coach Anthony Evans announced today the hiring of Erik Pastrana as assistant coach.
“I’m excited to welcome Erik back home to South Florida,” said Evans. “He is known as an outstanding recruiter and was instrumental in the success at Stephen F. Austin. Erik will be a great addition to our staff and basketball family.”
“Over time I had the chance to build a relationship with Coach Evans, and obviously being from South Florida, when this position opened, I had a lot of interest,” said Pastrana. “We had great success at Stephen F. Austin, but I thought that this was an outstanding opportunity in a very good league – Conference USA – and I think I’m joining the staff at a great time as they are on the brink of doing some really good things here.”
A native of Miami, Pastrana returns home after serving the past three seasons as assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin University (SFA) in Nacogdoches, Texas.
“It’s definitely exciting,” said Pastrana about his return to Miami. “Having spent the last eight or nine years in different states, being home is great. The easiest thing to recruit is something that you really believe in, and I have unbelievable pride in where I’m from and the South Florida area, so it’s exciting for me both personally and professionally.”
While on the bench for the Lumberjacks, Pastrana helped guide the program to arguably one of its most successful three year stretches in school history, winning three Southland Conference (SLC) Tournament Championships – including NCAA Tournament wins in two of his three seasons – and posting a three-year overall record of 89-14, and a 53-1 mark in conference play (59-1 including games in the Southland Conference Tournament).
During the 2015-16 campaign, SFA logged a 28-6 record and an 18-0 slate in conference play for the second time in three seasons. Among the 28 wins was a first round upset in the NCAA Tournament of No. 3 seeded, and eighth-ranked, West Virginia, 70-56.
The 2014-15 season yielded similar results, as SFA posted a 29-5 overall record and came within a win of sweeping conference play for a second-straight season. The Lumberjacks advanced to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 12 seed for the second-consecutive season, where it matched up with fifth-seeded Utah.
During his first season in Nacogdoches, Pastrana played a vital part in the Lumberjacks’ success, which included a 32-3 overall record, 18-0 Southland Conference mark, SLC regular season and tournament titles, NCAA Tournament second round victory over fifth-seeded VCU and a date in the third round against fourth-seeded UCLA.
At SFA, Pastrana worked primarily with the Lumberjacks frontcourt players, with those players enjoying tremendous success under his tutelage. Jacob Parker was a two-time All-SLC selection and SLC Player of the year at the conclusion of the 2013-14 season, while Thomas Walkup earned back-to-back SLC Player of the Year honors in 2014-15 and 2015-16, and was also tabbed a two-time Associated Press Honorable Mention All-America.
Pastrana was also responsible for recruiting All-SLC selections Clide Geffrard and Demetrious Floyd.
Pastrana came to SFA after spending the 2012-13 year as an assistant coach at Northwest Florida State College where he helped lead the Raiders to a NJCAA national runner-up finish and a 30-4 record with a squad that featured 10 future Division 1 signees including 2013 NJCAA Player of the Year Chris Jones (Louisville) and NJCAA All-American Elgin Cook (Oregon).
Prior to Northwest Florida State, Pastrana spent one year as an assistant coach at Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas. While with the Cardinals, Pastrana played a vital role in helping turn around the struggling program. In his one year, LCC saw a dramatic turnaround reaching their first 20 win season in over a decade and a school record +18 win improvement over the previous season. At Labette, he recruited and coached First Team All-Jayhawk Conference guard Dre Conner.
Pastrana got his coaching start while attending Kansas State where he was a graduate assistant from 2007-09 with Underwood and current South Carolina Head Coach – and FIU ’93 graduate – Frank Martin. During his first season, the Wildcats went 21-12 and recorded a third-place finish in the Big 12 with a mark of 10-6 in league contests, marking the program’s best finish since the inception of the league. The squad advanced to the NCAA Tournament, earning its first NCAA Tournament victory since the 1988 campaign. Following the season, K-State saw both Michael Beasley and Bill Walker move on to the NBA with Beasley being selected as the No. 2 overall pick after an All-American campaign in his one year at K-State.
The Wildcats then followed up that campaign with another 20 win season, earning an at-large bid to the NIT during the 2008-09 season.
In between coaching stops Pastrana also coached with two highly respected AAU programs, the Florida Rams and KC Run GMC. While at both programs, Pastrana helped coach and mentor young student-athletes, as many moved on to the Division I level.
Pastrana earned his Master’s degree in Counseling and Student Development in 2009 from Kansas State University and his Bachelors in History in 2007 from Florida State University.
