Meet Majerus in St. Louis
Hearing that Rick Majerus has accepted the job at St. Louis University today reminded me immediately of Ron McBride joining the University of Kentucky after the Utes fired him as football coach nearly five years ago:
Man, he is gonna look weird in blue.
Not that Majerus ever wore a ton of red, what with that cream-colored sweater he typically wore on the sideline. But still. It somehow just does not seem right that he should be coaching somewhere other than at Utah.
One thing is for sure, though -- next season is going to be fascinating.
Not only do the Utes have an inexperienced head coach trying to rebuild their own program after it bottomed out following Majerus' departure, but now fans can keep an eye on the Atlantic 10 Conference, to see how well Majerus is doing with four returning starters from a team that went 20-13 last season.
Probably, it will be even more engaging to monitor the sentiment about his tenure.
One source close to the program in St. Louis already has told me that he suspects the university president might have been starstruck at the opportunity to land Majerus and neglected to research his top candidate enough to know his dark side — the part of the brilliant coach that sometimes berated players and willfully violated the rules enough to get the Utes put on probation.
That seems hard to imagine, given the breadth of Majerus' reputation.
But who knows?
And if Majerus does fall back on some of his unseemly old habits yet wins at the same astonishing rate he did with the Utes, it will be interesting to see how willing the community will be to forgive the indiscretions. For the moment, the Billikens are banking on universal fanfare for a coach who, despite anything you might say about him, certainly qualifies as a home run hire with his 442 victories.
After all, just about the first thing they did after announcing the hiring was install a new intro on their Web site, telling fans how to buy season tickets.
Man, he is gonna look weird in blue.
Not that Majerus ever wore a ton of red, what with that cream-colored sweater he typically wore on the sideline. But still. It somehow just does not seem right that he should be coaching somewhere other than at Utah.
One thing is for sure, though -- next season is going to be fascinating.
Not only do the Utes have an inexperienced head coach trying to rebuild their own program after it bottomed out following Majerus' departure, but now fans can keep an eye on the Atlantic 10 Conference, to see how well Majerus is doing with four returning starters from a team that went 20-13 last season.
Probably, it will be even more engaging to monitor the sentiment about his tenure.
One source close to the program in St. Louis already has told me that he suspects the university president might have been starstruck at the opportunity to land Majerus and neglected to research his top candidate enough to know his dark side — the part of the brilliant coach that sometimes berated players and willfully violated the rules enough to get the Utes put on probation.
That seems hard to imagine, given the breadth of Majerus' reputation.
But who knows?
And if Majerus does fall back on some of his unseemly old habits yet wins at the same astonishing rate he did with the Utes, it will be interesting to see how willing the community will be to forgive the indiscretions. For the moment, the Billikens are banking on universal fanfare for a coach who, despite anything you might say about him, certainly qualifies as a home run hire with his 442 victories.
After all, just about the first thing they did after announcing the hiring was install a new intro on their Web site, telling fans how to buy season tickets.
