Majerus to the rescue at Saint Louis

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- There was an enormous poster being waved in the stands after Saint Louis University knocked off Memphis Friday night, featuring a cartoon of Saint Louis' coach Rick Majerus with the proclamation, "SLUperman."

That was a play on the initials of the school Majerus has returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 12 years. And only the seventh time ever.

"Probably a restaurant owner," said Majerus, the rotund veteran who earned his college basketball chops three decades ago at Marquette and later left a mark on Ball State and, especially, Utah.

"You had six-pack abs on the poster," Majerus was told.

His response: "Six-pack abs," he said. "I was born with a jelly belly. But I appreciate the nice thought."

He jokes regularly about his weight. He quotes Chaucer in the midst of an interview session regarding his team's March Madness, its minor upset of Memphis on Friday and the imposing prospect of playing top-seed Michigan State (28-7) Sunday in the West Regional.

He muses about social media. "I can't see this Twitter thing," he said. "You know, 'Just went to the beach, the water was wet.' "

He laments the change in the coaching community. "There aren't a lot of coaching groups anymore and, when there are, they talk shoe contracts, radio shows, revenue."

He expounds on defense, and the challenge of selling its importance to modern-day players. "When I was on ESPN as a broadcaster" -- in the four years after leaving Utah before he took the Saint Louis job in 2007 -- "I would always talk about defense, and I tried to put together some defense montages. They called me aside and said, 'Look, you're a good guy and really like the game. But we're not going to show somebody in their defensive stance on SportsCenter.'

"I mean, I like [former Knicks coach Mike] D'Antoni. He's a nice guy. I love to go eat with him. But I'm diametrically opposed to that ."

Majerus' players have bought what he's selling. Though ranked only 142nd in the nation in scoring, Saint Louis (26-7) is seventh in scoring defense, typically grinding opponents to dust with the kind of "constant hammering and up so close," senior forward Brian Conklin said, "that you know what kind of toothpaste they use."

In Majerus' first Saint Louis season, his players set a record by scoring the fewest points in the shot-clock era -- 20 -- but the defensive emphasis remained. Two years ago, Saint Louis was runner-up to Virginia Commonwealth in the mostly ignored CBI postseason tournament, yet got a glimpse of future possibilities when VCU followed that with its NCAA Final Four run last spring.

In 2008, Saint Louis opened its new 10,600-seat on-campus arena, paid for by SLU grad Dr. Richard Chafetz, who years before had been given financial aid to continue studying at the university after his parents divorced and, in return, promised the president he would "pay it back someday."

Chafetz has become close to Majerus, flying regularly to Saint Louis games from his home in Chicago. He will be here Sunday, to see Majerus against his opposite, Tom Izzo. "I can beat Rick," Izzo kidded. "I can get him up and down the court for sure."

The weight reference again, but Majerus' jocular public chats seem to portray a relaxed soul at 64. "I don't know about relaxed," he said. "I have seven bypasses to prove that I'm not relaxed."

But if his players play scrappy, rugged defense, it will help."