They used to call them, "Pastner Games." Pastner Games were blowouts, no-brainers that had Arizona coach Lute Olson pulling the starters for the reserves, then the reserves for the scrubbies. You've seen these guys: whiter than typing paper ... usually 5-foot-something ... played on the high school team, but now happily sit at the end of a Division I bench.

Josh Pastner spent four of the happiest years of his life stuck at the farthest point of Arizona's bench. He was recruited by exactly zero D-1 schools out of Kingwood, Texas, so he sent letters of introduction to every major, minor, sub-minor program in the country. If the school had a rim and a backboard, it heard from Pastner. Only one program wrote back: Arizona.

It might have been the best stamp UA ever licked.

Pastner was a freshman nothing during the 1996-97 season, the same year Arizona won its first and last national championship. The ring is back home with his parents. He was a sophomore when the Wildcats reached the West Regional final in 1998; a junior when they were upset in the first round of the Midwest Regional in 1999; and a senior when Wisconsin beat them in the second round of last season's tournament. Now he sits near the front of the bench as an undergraduate and underpaid assistant coach -- and savoring every nanosecond of it.

"I was the last man on the team as a player, now I'm the last man on the staff," he says shortly after a Sunday-morning film session. "I've been at the bottom of both totem poles."

He didn't play much at Arizona, but Pastner, 23, was never about minutes; he was about moments. There was a Pastner Game in reverse -- a blowout loss at LSU during his senior year -- that had him glancing at Olson, wondering when he'd get some garbage time. Instead, Olson never looked his way. Later, as the Wildcats were getting ready to board their flight to Tucson, Olson pulled Pastner aside.

"Josh, I'm sorry you didn't get into the game," Olson said. "But I wanted you to be able to tell your kids and grandkids that you left Arizona as an undefeated player."

And he did, too -- 43-0. "I never lost a game," says Pastner, who would run through three walls for Olson. "Of course, I only played when we were up by 20 or more."

Pastner's averaged 1.2 points during his career. His final appearance was during last season's 78-47 first-round win against Jackson State. "I came in gunning," he says. "I chucked it twice, and they were bad chucks."

There are lots of Pastners in college hoops, guys who do what they do because they have a crush on the game. Pastner gets a scholarship, which includes a check for $3,500 in August and another $3,500 in January. That's it. The sub-poverty wage has to cover his half of the monthly apartment rent (he rooms with Wildcat star Richard Jefferson), meals, car expenses, school supplies (he's taking 12 hours this semester), clothes, laundry and whatever social life he can squeeze in.

"We have training table," he says. "Some of the players don't like the food, but I'm there every night. I'm known for always taking a free meal."

During the regular season Pastner is up at 4:45, works out, does the class thing, reports to the team offices at the McKale Center, and doesn't leave until midnight. He'd stay later, "but believe it or not, I have a fiance. I used to stay 'til 1."

His basketball epiphany came in fourth grade. He was watching a Celtics-Lakers game with his old man and he blurted something about wanting to be a coach if he didn't make it to the NBA. Pastner had his own scouting service when he was 14. Coaches used to ask how much for his reports. "Free," he'd say. "I'm just a kid."

Who knows why Arizona answered his little letter way back when. But it did, and here he is -- the dinky former guard now sharing bench space with a coach who has the NCAA's best winning percentage during the last 13 years. Go figure.

You ought to see him these days. He's averaging about three hours sleep during the past week. So dark are the bags under his eyes that Wildcat forward Justin Wessel calls him "Jeff Van Gundy," in honor of the Knicks' mortician.

After Arizona beat Michigan State in Saturday's semifinal, Pastner and the other UA coaches stuck around to scout the Duke-Maryland game. Later there was a 10 p.m. film session for the players, followed by a staff meeting, followed by a near-all-night breakdown of more tapes. Pastner closed his eyes from 2 to 5:15.

There are two VCRs in his Minneapolis hotel room, a handful of game tapes and all sorts of notes. Part of his job is to detail player tendencies and patterns. Does a Dookie go right or left? Under or over a screen? Lead with the left or right shoulder? Favorite ball fake? Pet move? Try a step-back?

Sunday morning he was back with his new best friend -- the VCR remote. At 9 there was a staff meeting, then the players had to report to the Metrodome for interviews, then there was practice, dinner, more game clips. Monday is another staff meeting, breakfast, another team meeting, shootaround, then the countdown to tipoff.

"I think we match up good," he says. "It's kind of fitting how it ended up: the preseason No. 1 and 2 teams. Both teams have NBA guys. Both teams are good defensively. Both teams are good offensively. It's a big, big-time game."

No matter who wins Monday evening, this is probably it for Pastner on the UA staff. His one-year deal is done at semester's end.

"If none of the other assistants get new jobs, I guess I become a free agent," he says. "But it's been awesome. I've seen it from both angles -- player and coach -- which is amazing."

Memo to America's head coaches: Expect a letter from Pastner. If you're smart, you'll open it.

Gene Wojciechowski is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail Geno at gene.wojciechowski@espnmag.com.