In what amounts to a major change in the way St. Louis University is approaching basketball, SLU has hired former Utah coach Rick Majerus to replace Brad Soderberg, who was fired on April 17.
Majerus, one of the most successful coaches in college basketball in recent years, will be introduced at a news conference on Monday at 10 a.m.
Majerus, 59, has been out of coaching since stepping down from Utah in the middle of the 2004 season due to health concerns. Since then, he has been working for ESPN as an analyst, though his name has surfaced with several other job openings.
Majerus first met with Biondi last Saturday, and SLU and Majerus' agent spent the next five days negotiating. On Friday, Biondi and Majerus met face to face to hammer out the final details. An agreement was reached late afternoon on Friday. Details of Majerus’ contract were not specifically available, but it’s believed he will make around $1 million a year for five years. Soderberg’s salary was around $400,000. The highest-paid coach in the Atlantic 10 had been Sean Miller at Xavier, who makes between $700,000 and $900,000.
"I’m excited about this opportunity,’’ Majerus told the Post-Dispatch on Friday. "Fr. Biondi has put together a terrific package with the arena. I went to a Jesuit school and it’s an honor and a privilege and I hope to be able to share that with other youngsters. I look forward to working with this team. I feel very excited. I think it’s a world class university and I think we can bring the team up to the standards of the university, not that they haven’t been good in the past."
Like a lot of St. Louisians I'm a little skeptical about "big name" coaches. While Tony LaRussa has fit into the community reasonably well, many still have (bad) memories of the days Mike Keenan prowled the city streets. Maybe Majerus will prove to be one of those "folksy" types that St. Louis loves to love, ala Whitey Herzog or Charlie Spoonhauer. I know Majerus has a sometimes prickly reputation with his players, but Midwesterners don't have problems with that as long as you seem genuine and down to earth otherwise.
Majerus also doesn't have the squeaky clean reputation that you generally associate with SLU.
This will certainly be different.
Hre is the take of Michael C Lewis at the Salt Lake Trib:
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's 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 doesn't 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.
Other views:
From some St. Louis bashing fool on an AOL sports blog:
Majerus lives in Milwaukee to be closer to his mother, and that probably ended his dealing with Long Beach State, but why would he chose St. Louis over Iowa? That makes little sense. Not that it matters. Odds are that this marriage won't last. Having Majerus for two seasons would be quite an accomplishment. Hell, it wouldn't be a surprise if Majerus gets cold feet before Midnight Madness. This guy has flirted with many, many schools in the past and the comfy television gig (and free buffets) seem to be more to his liking anyway. This just can't end well, and St. Louis will likely fall way short of its goal of being a Top 50 program. At least proprietors of the city's BBQ segment should get a big boost.
Actually, Majerus' health is a real concern. When Majerus' name surfaced a couple of days ago a buddy of mine (and SLU grad) said, "Is there any way to buy common stock in the Cusamano family?" For the non-St. Louis connected out there, the Cusamano family is the premier culinary brood in the city. Their pasta places are legendary, the portions are generous, and the resultant heart attacks are plentiful. (Hell, it's 10:30 in the morning but I could now go for some cannelloni.)
From some Fox Sports Net blog:
Rick Majerus is back. Not by popular demand.
The former Utah coach and current television analyst agreed to a deal to replace Brad Soderberg as the head coach at St. Louis.
Soderberg was one of the most likable guys in the industry. Majerus is one of the most despised.
There's no disputing the fact that Majerus can coach. He is 422-147 in his career and led the Utes to the national title game in 1998.
However, there are plenty of reasons why Majerus wasn't the right guy for the job.
His health is certainly an issue. In fact, he reneged less than a week after taking the USC job 2 1/2 years ago, citing health reasons. Well, he's approaching 60 years old and his health isn't going to get any better.
His methods are also in question.
Utah was placed on three years probation for rules violations after he left.
St. Louis wanted a personality when it fired Brad Soderberg. They also wanted someone to spice things up on the court with the opening of a new building a little more than a year away.
Well, they got a guy with a personality. Just not a personality that most people want to be around.
As for the exciting style of play that the Billikens program was hoping to employ, it's doubtful that'll happen with Majerus. His teams may score a few more points than Soderberg's, but he's far from a run-and-gun coach.
From Eleven Warriors (an Ohio State football blog), Rick Majerus Returns To Competitive Eating:
Oh, wait…my biscuit. I meant to say Rick Majerus has taken the hoops job at St. Louis, derailing a stellar career as the hooptiest expert analyst to ever appear on the Worldwide Leader. The svelte Majerus took a three year sabbatical to focus on carb intake and ESPN growth and development classes such as Communication of the Obvious and Stroke the Coach 101. Contract terms were not disclosed but speculation is that Thick Rick’s compensation package includes a gingerbread house and a pool filled with sausage gravy. In all seriousness, Majerus is a popular guy amongst his coaching peers and college basketball is much better off with him on the sidelines versus TV.
I suppose SLU fans should be heartened by the resources that the university is (finally) putting into the program. Evidently Soderberg and his staff were nickled and dimed to death during their years at the helm. It makes no sense to hire Majerus and then not give him the financial resources to do the job, particularly as the program is moving into new on campus facilities soon.
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