Timmerman on Majerus

[SluSignGuy]

SLU faces tough call on Majerus

By Tom Timmermann

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

04/25/2007

If St. Louis University is at a crossroads, sitting at a point where it is deciding whether to make a multi-million dollar, long-range commitment to significantly raise the school's profile in basketball, it seems fully appropriate that the decision revolves around Rick Majerus.

That's because Majerus has, at times, represented both sides of college basketball's complex equation. He's a winner, who in 20 seasons of coaching has never had a losing record and who went to the NCAA Tournament in nine of his final 10 seasons. He is seen by some of the game's best minds as a basketball genius who can find wins where others can't.

And while he's known for his quick wit and quips, he has also offended people along the way, alienating fans, players, colleagues, administrators and the media alike. "He acted like an indulged emperor," Gordon Monson, a columnist at the Salt Lake Tribune, wrote a month ago, "did his business like a chameleon that treated some people one way, with due respect, and some people another way, with no respect at all.

"He had two chins, and two faces."

A decision on whether Majerus will be SLU's next coach is expected to come in the next 48 hours. As both sides move closer to deciding what to do — Majerus on whether he wants to get back into coaching, SLU on whether it wants to hire Majerus — there are plenty of pluses and minuses that come into play.

There is one thing everyone agrees on: Majerus knows basketball.

"He's one of the best X's and O's coaches I've ever been around, if not the best," said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar, who played for Majerus in Milwaukee and was an assistant to him at the 1997 under-22 world championships. "Don Nelson may be the best, but Rick Majerus would be close.

"No. 1, he's extremely smart. No. 2, he totally understands how the game should be played within his philosophy. He's bright enough to understand what he wants and figure things out and make adjustments. He's got a great feel for teaching the game. He's a great, great teacher."

Majerus played one season of college basketball, as a walk-on at Marquette in 1967, and was cut before his sophomore season. After graduating, he spent 12 years there as an assistant coach, then three as head coach. In each of those three seasons, Marquette went to the NIT.

After a year as an assistant coach with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, he returned to the college ranks, where he had just two non-winning seasons in his 20 seasons at Marquette, Ball State and Utah.

In his first full season at Utah (the previous one was cut short when he left the team to have quintuple heart bypass surgery), the Utes went 30-4 and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.His biggest accomplishment came in 1998, when Utah went 30-4 and reached the NCAA championship game, losing to Kentucky 78-69."Preparation has always been a strength," said Tommy Connor, who played and coached under Majerus and is now the coach at Westminster, an NAIA school in Salt Lake City. "His teams at Utah were extraordinarily prepared for opponents. That was something he brought from the NBA. The most obvious example, in terms of strategy, was committing in the NCAAs against Arizona to play a triangle-and-two for 40 minutes. He's a man-to-man guy, and that was a significant move that he made when the lights were the brightest."

"If he takes the job," Connor said, "they'll win the conference. That's the bottom line."

On the other hand

Majerus' health is a major concern. At 59, he has had seven heart bypasses and a medley of other problems. Three times he has left a team in midseason because of his health. After the bypasses his first season at Utah, he coached one game there before taking the rest of the season off, first for knee surgery, then to have stents placed in two coronary arteries and then so he could be with his mother, who was battling breast cancer.

In 2004, he left Utah for good because of what he feared was more heart trouble but turned out to be diverticulitis, an intestinal ailment. In December 2004, he took the job at USC but gave it up a few days later, saying he had no specific health problem but wasn't fit enough to give the job his all. Some speculated that his health was fine and he may have quit after realizing how daunting the task at USC would be.

Majerus wouldn't come cheap. He had a five-year, $5 million contract at USC and would probably command that much, if not more, from SLU. That would make him the highest-paid coach in the Atlantic 10.

The graduation rates for Majerus' Utah teams were not exemplary. For students entering as freshmen in 1992-93, only 14 percent had earned a degree by 1999. (SLU's number for the same period was 27 percent.) Going forward from there, the numbers were 22, 20, 25 and 36 percent.

And then there's Majerus' personality. More than 30 players left the program during his time as coach. Majerus is no stranger to off-color language and can be a harsh critic. Future NBA No. 1 draft choice Andrew Bogut was prepared to leave after his freshman season until Majerus left.

"He was a tough guy to play for," Bogut told the Milwaukee Bucks website. "He knows the game very well, but the way he brings it across is pretty hard to swallow sometimes. He is brutal."

Said Romar: "He's very demanding. He has a certain way he wants things done, and he will not allow any compromise or slippage."

Majerus' final seasons at Utah weren't as successful as his earlier ones. He didn't recruit as well, and players like Bogut and Marc Jackson were leaving early. In 2003, Utah was put on three years of probation by the NCAA for rules violations. The violations were minor — in one, Majerus bought breakfast for a player after the player's father died — but it spoke to what the NCAA termed the school's lack of departmental oversight of Majerus. The school's athletics director had his salary frozen for a year, and Majerus' salary would have been frozen for two years had he continued to coach at Utah.

[Alonzo P Hawk]

It's 2 am and I haven't slept in weeks, so I may have gotten this wrong...but isn't this a contradiction?

"He's a winner, who in 20 seasons of coaching has never had a losing record and who went to the NCAA Tournament in nine of his final 10 seasons."

"After a year as an assistant coach with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, he returned to the college ranks, where he had just two non-winning seasons in his 20 seasons at Marquette, Ball State and Utah."

?

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*Official Billikens.com sponsor of Mike Beczkala

[SluSignGuy]

Gotta love finals time don't you alonzo?

Majerus has never had a losing record.

In 1993-94, his team went 14 and 14.

In 1987-88, his team went 15 and 15.

Both non-winning records.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Majerus

WOO GOTTA LOVE FINALS!

[Basketbill]

age 59.....interesting many cited Gillen's age of 60 as to old

[cheeseman]

The problem with Gillen was that he had not kept the same profile in college BB as RM has.

[Basketbill]

just making an interesting observation, age 60 got commnets age 59 did not.....but health did.

[brianstl]

With the fact Majerus has had for more success than Gillen and that makes people look past his age.

[Billiken Rich]

"At 59, he has had seven heart bypasses and a medley of other problems."

7 BYPASSES!!!!!?????

It's amazing he has any unstitched veins and arteries left. I just hope we don't blow $5 million for a coach who'll be a part timer due to injury, and might leave at the drop of a hat.

[3star_recruit]

It's worth the investment if the administration finally gives the basketball program it's full backing. Besides, it's Chaifetz's money.

[bonwich]

Well, I can speak from experience that SLU has a superior cardiac-surgery program. Perhaps that's what really sealed the deal

[Box and Won]

Wouldn't be the first time our heart surgeons have helped us land a program-changer.

[courtside]

>age 59.....interesting many cited Gillen's age of 60 as to

>old

I am unsure how many people were concerned about his age as opposed to the fact his success was less in his 7 year in his last stop. His assistant Bobby Gonzalez was with him at 3 places....and when he left, Gillen's success went down the tubes in a tough go in a tough ACC conference at UVA.