A person from Joe Pasternack’s basketball coaching past is joining his staff at UC Santa Barbara.
Brian Eskildsen, who served as the director of operations under Pasternack at the University of New Orleans in 2009-10, has been hired as an assistant coach with the Gauchos.
“It’s great to be reunited with him after our time of working together at New Orleans,” said Pasternack, who was head coach there from 2007-11.
After his time at New Orleans, Esklidsen worked as an assistant at several prominent college programs. He most recently was at Georgia Tech in the ACC. Prior to that he was on staff at Harvard for eight seasons, helping the Crimson to three Ivy League titles, an NCAA Tournament appearance and two NIT berths. He also coached at Rice and Stanford.
“I’m thrilled and honored to be joining the UC Santa Barbara Basketball program under the leadership of Coach Pasternack,” Eskildsen said. “Having previously worked with Coach Pasternack, it’s been fun to watch from afar the growth and incredible success of the team over the last several years.
“My family and I are now ecstatic to be a part of the Santa Barbara community and I can’t wait to help continue to push the program to new heights.”
Esklidsen, 35, comes to Santa Barbara with his wife, Natalie, and their daughter Penny
He replaces assistant coach Ben Tucker, who was hired as the head men’s basketball coach at Emory-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona. Tucker was part of five 20-plus win seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances in the last three seasons at UCSB.
“Coach Tucker has been a huge part of what we accomplished over the last six years,” Pasternack said. “His consistent, everyday work ethic along with his X-and-O’s in game planning really contributed to our success. Embry-Riddle is very fortunate to have Coach Tucker leading their program. He is one of the brightest young coaches in the country.”