Rick Majerus

The University of Utah Runnin' Utes, who have the honor of playing Kentucky tonight in the NCAA Midwest Regional, were finishing up their noon shoot-around at the Metrodome when their coach told them to sit down on the bench. "You want Italian tonight?" Rick Majerus asked. "That OK? . . . Or do you want to go to Ruth's Steakhouse tonight? You don't want beef . . . Some of you want to go to the Mall of America. . . . We're together for dinner at 6:30, at Planet Hollywood, OK?" Their dinner plans settled, the group started talking about lunch, another subject dear to Majerus' heart.

Utah basketball coach Rick Majerus went to Los Angeles looking for players but left with 27 stitches in his leg and a separated shoulder. Majerus fell inside a rental car van leaving Los Angeles International Airport, where he had arrived early Friday on a recruiting trip, he told Los Angeles Times sports columnist T.J. Simers. Majerus said he was that he was standing in a rental car van in which all the seats were taken and when it hit a bump, he was tossed into the stairwell.

Saint Louis hired Rick Majerus yesterday, a move that signals the school's intentions of becoming a Top 50 national program. Father Lawrence Biondi, the school president, announced the hiring in a statement. Majerus, a college basketball analyst for ESPN the last 3 years, has a career record of 422-147 with 15 postseason appearances. The school will introduce Majerus at a news conference Monday morning. "I am extremely excited about having a person of Rick Majerus' stature and reputation at the helm of our men's basketball team," Biondi said.

Rick Majerus, 64, the jovial college basketball coach who led Utah to the 1998 NCAA final and had only one losing season in 25 years with four schools, died Saturday. Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman, the coach's longtime friend, confirmed in a statement released through the Salt Lake Tribune that Mr. Majerus died of heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital. Mr. Majerus said Nov. 19 that he wouldn't return to St. Louis because of the heart condition. He ended the school's 12-year NCAA tournament drought last season with a 26-win team.

Rick Majerus yesterday was introduced as the new basketball coach at St. Louis University. Majerus replaces Brad Soderberg, who won 20 games in the last of his five seasons but failed to generate even an NIT bid his last 3 years. Soderberg was fired April 17. Majerus, an ESPN analyst the last 3 years, agreed to a 6-year contract Friday. "I saw this as an opportunity," the 59-year-old coach said at a news conference. "I don't think I forgot how to do it. I love practice and I love the kids and I like the game.

Rick Majerus said he will not coach the University of Utah again this season, ending his 15-year association with the school he brought to national prominence. "No. I won't come back this year, and I won't coach next year for sure," Majerus told ESPN. He also ruled out coaching Utah in the future. Majerus left the team on Jan. 28 because of heart problems, the third time his health has interfered with his coaching duties. He had said he would retire at the end of the season, but both he and the university left open the chance he would still return to coach this season.

UNIVERSITY OF Utah officials will honor the legacy of Rick Majerus by hanging a replica of his trademark white sweater from the rafters at the basketball arena where he coached from 1989 to 2004 and regularly led the Utes to the NCAA Tournament. A moment of silence will be held at Utah's next game Wednesday and players will wear black patches in honor of a man Utah athletic director Chris Hill remembered as a "basketball savant. " Majerus died Saturday in Los Angeles while awaiting a heart transplant.

Hundreds of people turned out at St. Louis University on Friday to honor Rick Majerus, the Billikens basketball coach who died Saturday of heart failure at age 64. He was remembered fondly by students, faculty, and well-wishers who described him as funny but passionate, exacting but caring, and as a genius who got the best out of his players. Majerus spent 25 years as a head coach at Marquette, Ball State, Utah, and St. Louis, where he spent the last five seasons. He compiled a 517-216 record, and had only one losing season.

While Saint Louis University spokesman Clayton Berry would not say whether the Jesuit school is considering disciplinary action against coach Rick Majerus for taking a pro-choice stand, the coach continued to speak his mind. Archbishop Raymond Burke criticized Majerus' comments at a rally for Hillary Rodham Clinton as not being in line with Catholic teachings. "I have no bone to pick with the bishop, I really don't," Majerus told ESPN.com. "He's entitled to his opinion, but I should be entitled to mine.

Maybe the best lesson Rick Majerus learned from Al McGuire was to be himself, quirks and all. So here Majerus is, the only coach in this Final Four who lives in a hotel suite and rarely steps inside his lavish campus office. Only Utah has a coach who flies to games separately from his players, believing they can mature more easily without his looking over their shoulders. "He became his own Damon Runyon character," said McGuire, Majerus' old coach and boss at Marquette, who is more than a little Runyonesque himself.

When Temple hosts St. Louis on Saturday, someone will be missing on the Billikens bench. Rick Majerus is no longer patrolling the sideline. The St. Louis coach died Dec. 1 of heart failure at the age of 64. "A good man," Temple coach Fran Dunphy recalled. "Just a really good guy, a great basketball guy. " Dunphy said he would likely think of Majerus when he glances at the St. Louis bench. "He was such a fixture there," Dunphy said of Majerus, who compiled a 517-215 record in 25 seasons at St. Louis, Ball State, Utah, and Marquette.

Hundreds of people turned out at St. Louis University on Friday to honor Rick Majerus, the Billikens basketball coach who died Saturday of heart failure at age 64. He was remembered fondly by students, faculty, and well-wishers who described him as funny but passionate, exacting but caring, and as a genius who got the best out of his players. Majerus spent 25 years as a head coach at Marquette, Ball State, Utah, and St. Louis, where he spent the last five seasons. He compiled a 517-216 record, and had only one losing season.

UNIVERSITY OF Utah officials will honor the legacy of Rick Majerus by hanging a replica of his trademark white sweater from the rafters at the basketball arena where he coached from 1989 to 2004 and regularly led the Utes to the NCAA Tournament. A moment of silence will be held at Utah's next game Wednesday and players will wear black patches in honor of a man Utah athletic director Chris Hill remembered as a "basketball savant. " Majerus died Saturday in Los Angeles while awaiting a heart transplant.

RICK MAJERUS, the jovial basketball-obsessed coach who led Utah to the 1998 NCAA final and had only one losing season in 25 years with four schools, died Saturday. He was 64. Majerus died of heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital. Saint Louis athletic director Chris May said in a statement that what he would remember most about Majerus "was his enduring passion to see his players excel both on and off the court. " The school announced Nov. 19 that Majerus wouldn't return to Saint Louis because of the heart condition.

Rick Majerus, 64, the jovial college basketball coach who led Utah to the 1998 NCAA final and had only one losing season in 25 years with four schools, died Saturday. Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman, the coach's longtime friend, confirmed in a statement released through the Salt Lake Tribune that Mr. Majerus died of heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital. Mr. Majerus said Nov. 19 that he wouldn't return to St. Louis because of the heart condition. He ended the school's 12-year NCAA tournament drought last season with a 26-win team.

Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus is no fan of the school's affiliation with the Atlantic 10 Conference. Too much travel, too expensive, too hard on the student-athletes. "We belong in the Missouri Valley," Majerus said after the Billikens whipped Fordham, 75-48, Wednesday night, "if we care about the kids' academics. " It's not a sentiment likely to endear the ever-opinionated Majerus to the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, the school president who orchestrated the move from Conference USA to the A-10 for the 2005-06 season.

While Saint Louis University spokesman Clayton Berry would not say whether the Jesuit school is considering disciplinary action against coach Rick Majerus for taking a pro-choice stand, the coach continued to speak his mind. Archbishop Raymond Burke criticized Majerus' comments at a rally for Hillary Rodham Clinton as not being in line with Catholic teachings. "I have no bone to pick with the bishop, I really don't," Majerus told ESPN.com. "He's entitled to his opinion, but I should be entitled to mine.

A Roman Catholic archbishop said yesterday he will ask officials of Saint Louis University to take "appropriate action" against its basketball coach, who said in a television interview he supports abortion rights. One of the game's winningest coaches, Rick Majerus made the comment at a weekend rally for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke declined to say what the action against Majerus should be, saying that was a decision for the Jesuit university.

Rick Majerus, who is about ready to return to the head coach's seat on a college basketball bench for the first time in more than 3 1/2 years, still likes to poke fun at his diet and the resulting health risks. "I enjoyed and earned every one of my seven bypasses," the new St. Louis University coach said yesterday at the Atlantic Ten Conference men's basketball media day. "I had fun with every Philly cheesesteak I ate, every ice cream cone I ate, every beer I drank. " Majerus last walked a sideline in January 2004 shortly before chest pains compelled him to resign as Utah head coach.

ATLANTIC CITY - Rick Majerus had only one wish yesterday. He wanted to get out of Boardwalk Hall as quickly as possible and get back to St. Louis, so he could get back to coaching his basketball team. It wasn't personal. He understands the Atlantic 10 has to hold its annual media day sometime, somewhere. And that the logical choice is the venue where the conference tournament will take place in March. What's illogical to him is that the Saint Louis Billikens play in a league based primarily half-a-continent away.