Rick Majerus RIP

[Norm Peterson]

Just read this. Wow. Only 64 years old.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/rick-majerus-master-strategist-larger-life-personality-dies-030332642--ncaab.html

[tcp]

sad news. majerus was a good guy and a helluva basketball coach.

[Norm Peterson]

And he really wasn't that old. But he also wasn't real good at taking care of himself, either. Sad, but not surprising. From what someone else on this board has told me, I would surmise that if Steve Pederson hadn't taken Rick out to dinner in public in Omaha that one night, he'd have become our head coach. How different things might be today if that had come to pass. Heck, maybe not different at all. Maybe we're better off because the way things turned out, we got Tim Miles. That'll all have to play out. But it's interesting to wonder.

[tcp]

All good stories have twists and turns... You can never know what an alternate universe has planned for you if only this or that had happened.

I just feel sad for him and his family that he's gone. He was a good egg in an often less than good profession.

Of course, given how our football team did tonight, it's easy to be prone to sadness....

[Donkey]

Remember the Ball State team he built that nearly beat UNLV back in 1989 or 1990?

That Utah team in1998 which beat a UNC team loaded with future NBA first round picks a year after his greatest player (Keith Van Horne) graduated (granted Andre Miller, Hanno Motola were not exactly scrubs themselves)?

It is my understanding Majerus never lived in a house. Instead, he lived out of a hotel wherever he coached. His life was so simple: basketball (and from stories he was also supposedly a devoted son). He may not have lived healthy, but he definitely lived an interesting life.

[Daledangdarn]

Great coach.

[HB]

And he really wasn't that old. But he also wasn't real good at taking care of himself, either. Sad, but not surprising. From what someone else on this board has told me, I would surmise that if Steve Pederson hadn't taken Rick out to dinner in public in Omaha that one night, he'd have become our head coach. How different things might be today if that had come to pass. Heck, maybe not different at all. Maybe we're better off because the way things turned out, we got Tim Miles. That'll all have to play out. But it's interesting to wonder.

I echo the comments--special coach, special guy, very unique, intellectual, and interesting guy.

Norm, the public dinner didn't quash the Majerus deal, it was Collier getting the Butler AD job and resigning in the summer rather than getting whacked after the following season. Majerus couldn't take the job until after the season, and we couldn't go the "interim" route and had to hire a permanent coach given the timing of things.

[Tony]

I echo the comments--special coach, special guy, very unique, intellectual, and interesting guy.

True, true, true, true, and true. H e was also building the Billikens into a very good team, also. No telling what they would be doing this year if he could have coached. There are not many of us that can say that we are keeping ourselves totally healthy. I hope that his "healthiest" attribute was related to his Lord and Savior. I'll miss him.

[49r]

RIP Rick, you will be missed.

One of the last great quotable coaches, never worried about self-censoring. He also had a special affinity for Ashley Judd...

After Kentucky defeated Utah for the national title in 1998, Ashley Judd gave Utes coach Rick Majerus a hug, something he will never forget…

“She hugged me as a consolation because we lost,” he said the other day. “I went to bed for two years with that as my sex life.”

[st. Paul Pioneer Press, 03/24/2003]

During the last minute of a 20-point blowout of Tennessee by Kentucky…

“Well, there’s not much to look forward to from here on out, so I’m trying to find Ashley Judd in the crowd. It beats the adult videos at the hotel.”

[Heard on ESPN, 1/25/2005]

[Huskerpapa]

RIP...he had the knack of making something from nothing. I know nothing of him as a man or citizen, but as a coach, he was one of the better ones.