Coach Majerus' milestones

In the span of three days, University of Utah men's basketball coach Rick Majerus achieved two significant milestones — 300 wins as U. coach after his team's victory over Colorado State University Saturday and his 400th career win achieved Monday night at the University of Wyoming.

Majerus, the U.'s coach for 14 years, joins Vadal Peterson (385) and Jack Gardner (339) as Utah coaches with 300 wins. Majerus' 300th victory came in the wee hours Monday night at Laramie's Arena-Auditorium, a venue where a Majerus team hadn't won since 1993.

The coach downplayed his accomplishments, telling the Associated Press following the Colorado State victory, "I am happy for the program, but I would like to give every player I ever had an award.

"Like I've said all along, coaches don't win games, players win games."

That may be true, but Majerus' modesty belies his basketball genius. Anyone who witnessed the U.'s defeat of top-ranked Alabama earlier this year saw the master at work. Seemingly every possession had been scripted by Majerus, who appeared to have an innate sense of how every Alabama player individually and as a team would respond to the U.'s offense and defense. It was another storybook evening for the U., which beat the No. 1-ranked team and, in doing so, chalked up the school's 1,500th victory.

Basketball isn't a passion for Majerus. It is best described as an obsession, as Deseret News columnist Doug Robinson explained in a 2001 profile of Majerus:

"Once coaching gets in your blood, it's got a hold on you as powerful as any drug. No one knows this more than Rick Majerus, the Ute's gifted, obsessive basketball coach. He's consumed by coaching. He works into the wee hours poring over game plans, watching ESPN games and planning practice. Practices are long and intense and often punctuated by the coach's profane outbursts. Ask Majerus when you can reach him on the phone and he'll say 'How about 3 a.m.?' And he's serious. His single mindedness cost him a marriage, contributed to health problems and caused him to hole up in a hotel room for a decade."

But it is precisely that dedication to the game that makes Majerus such a hot commodity. Any time a coaching job opens at a major NCAA Division 1 college or university, Majerus is invariably mentioned as a contender.

Despite many opportunities, Majerus has stuck by the University of Utah for the past 14 years. And the community has stood by Majerus as he worked through personal issues ranging from undergoing seven heart bypasses his first season at the U., the illness of his mother and his ongoing struggle with his weight.

Majerus, justifiably, has reserved the right to at least consider offers that come his way. But as he demonstrated just a few weeks ago by leaving the team as it faced rival Brigham Young University to speak at the funeral of the stepfather of former U. and now NBA player Andre Miller, Majerus is intensely devoted to the people who mean most to him.

That is a very admirable quality — perhaps more instructive to his charges than the basketball fundamentals that Majerus preaches to his players.