Vegas Hiatus a Sore Spot With Majerus

Pulling Coach Rick Majerus away from his team is about as easy as dragging him from a pork chop, yet there he sits, in the solitude of Sin City, at a time when his players need him most.

What’s wrong with this lounge act?

Everything.

While the Utah Utes have struggled to a 7-5 start, already losing two games at the Huntsman Center in the same season for the first time in seven years, Majerus has been holed up in a luxury Las Vegas hotel, swimming daily in a 55-meter pool, ordering room service.

What may sound like a dream getaway has been one of the most miserable stretches of the 52-year-old coach’s distinguished career.

“I miss the practices, I miss everything about it,” Majerus says. “I love to coach.”

Majerus has not coached the team he has led for 12 seasons since a Nov. 17 victory over Idaho State, limping off to rehabilitate a surgically repaired right knee that swelled to the size of a watermelon because Majerus was too busy coaching to heed doctors’ orders.

“A lot of it is my fault,” Majerus admits.

Majerus, in fact, has been embarrassed by the fuss being made over him.

“You hate to have people waste one iota of emotion,” Majerus says, “but people have been so nice.”

The story is simple: Majerus has a bum right knee. He should have taken care of it long ago, waited until late September to undergo surgery, rushed back too fast, and is now paying for it.

It took former Marquette coach Al McGuire, a man fighting for his own life, to make Majerus improve the quality of his.

After the Idaho State victory, Majerus paid one of his regular visits to his mentor, who is battling leukemia.

McGuire took one look at Majerus’ knee and ordered him to see a doctor.

“He put it in perspective,” Majerus recalls of the conversation. “He said, ‘That’s your knee for the rest of your life.’ He said, ‘You think anyone’s going to remember any games won or lost two months after the season, let alone two years, let alone 20 years?’ ”

So Majerus walked away from his team while he still could.

He has been in Las Vegas since late November, working out daily with famed physical therapist Keith Kleven.

Majerus knows he’s in good hands.

“Today, when I was walking out of the clinic, Tiger Woods was walking in,” he says.

Majerus’ life has become like the movie “Groundhog Day.”

“I do the same thing every day,” he says. “I have the exact wake-up call, the exact same breakfast, because that’s what I need to get better.”

He gets up early, does water exercises in the hotel pool, swims a mile, then returns to his room for a breakfast of shredded wheat, banana and skim milk.

Then it’s off to Kleven’s clinic for therapy from 9:30 to noon. After lunch, he resumes treatment from 1:45 to 4:15, then is driven back to the hotel.

“When I get up to the room, I literally crash,” Majerus says.

The knee has responded well to treatment and Majerus has vowed to be back at practice Jan. 1 and back on the bench Jan. 3, when Utah plays Long Beach State.

This week, Majerus flew from Las Vegas to San Diego to get fitted for a special knee brace.

During time away from his team, Majerus says he has not watched Utah games on television.

“I don’t, no,” he says. “How could I? I don’t want to micro-manage. I can’t coach them from here.

“I have tremendous focus. My focus right now is my right knee getting better. I haven’t made a recruiting call. I don’t do anything.”

Majerus does speak daily with assistant coach Dick Hunsaker, who has taken over the team in his absence.

This was going to be a transition year in the best of times, with only one starter returning to the Utes.

“I feel bad for my assistant,” Majerus says. “He’s doing a great job in a very tough situation. And I feel bad for the kids.”

Technically, this is still Majerus’ team. All wins and losses logged while he’s away go on his career coaching record.

None of this has been easy. While Majerus has been in Las Vegas, his uncle passed away and McGuire’s condition has deteriorated in the last year.

Every time Majerus lapses into self-pity, though, he says he thinks of McGuire and Dallas Maverick Coach Don Nelson, recently diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Majerus, a one-time assistant under Nelson with the Milwaukee Bucks, is coordinating Nelson’s cancer treatment at a Salt Lake City facility.

“Hey, I don’t have prostate cancer,” Majerus says. “I call McGuire every three or four days. I’m not terminal.

“At the end of the day, I’ve got a charmed life.”

FOUL LANGUAGE

The new NCAA mandate to cut down on rough play this year is off to a predictable start.

“It’s a little chaotic,” said Big East Commissioner Michael Tranghese, this year’s NCAA men’s basketball committee chairman. “I think some people get it better than others.”

What USC Coach Henry Bibby got last week was a reprimand from Pacific 10 Commissioner Tom Hansen after Bibby blasted officials after his team’s game against Pepperdine.

“The kids don’t know how to play because the officiating is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Bibby said.

Tranghese predicted the foul edict would have as much of an impact on the game since the introduction of the three-point shot in the 1980s.

The mandate has been in the works for years but was hurled toward passage by the basketball rules committee after last year’s rugby scrum between Michigan State and Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament national semifinals--a game that produced a 19-17 halftime score.

Believing its game had teetered closer to a wrestling match than the finesse sport Dr. Naismith invented, the NCAA ordered officials to enforce rules that already are on the books.

The edict forbids players from grabbing opponents as they cross the lane. It states that post players without the ball cannot simply be muscled out of position. It mandates that there shall be no hand or forearm checking against a player with the ball.

Enforcing the rules uniformly has been a problem. That was Bibby’s beef.

“I’m not naive enough to think this was going to be a smooth transition,” Tranghese said.

Last week, four Syracuse players fouled out in a loss against Tennessee.

In a victory over Ohio State, Kansas was called for 30 fouls.

At its best, the crackdown has produced the desired effect, witness Kansas’ free-form 99-98 victory over UCLA in November.

As of last week, six teams were averaging more than 90 points a game. Last season, Duke led the country with a per-game average of 88.

At its worst, the crackdown has produced Illinois vs. Arizona, a nearly three-hour, regulation-game marathon in which Illinois was called for 27 fouls.

“I’ve seen some really ugly games,” Tranghese said, “but I saw some ugly games last year when the whistle wasn’t blown a whole lot.

“I would argue blowing the whistle is better than not letting players get from point A to point B.”

Tranghese has news for anyone thinking this mandate is going to go the way of the Edsel.

In fact, NCAA tournament assignments for officials are going to be handed out based on how well the referees enforce the rules.

If officials become lax, Tranghese warns, the hammer could really come down.

“I think the rules committee may go even further and begin to focus on sheer absolutes,” he said.

“I think the only way they’re going to get to where the rules committee wants them to get is to blow the whistle. If you don’t blow the whistle, it’s going to continue to be the way it is, which brings our game closer and closer to the NBA game.”

Yikes. Nobody wants that.

Last August, the Big East held a seminar for its coaches to explain the new edict.

Some of the nation’s top officials attended.

Tranghese: “You’re talking about guys who have been very successful officials, at the top of their profession, who have officiated this way for 20 years, and we’re saying to them: ‘Change.’ It’s hard. Really hard.”

LOOSE ENDS

Interim Indiana Coach Mike Davis did not improve his chances to become Bob Knight’s long-term successor when he said after Friday’s loss to Kentucky, “I’m not the guy for this job.” The loss dropped Indiana’s record to 7-5. Davis retracted his comments the next day. “I said some things that I had no business saying, and that are completely untrue,” he told the Indianapolis Star. “I want this job more than anything.”

Looking for the three most overrated teams of the early season? Connecticut is No. 10 in this week’s Associated Press poll but ranks No. 82 in the Ratings Percentage Index, used by the NCAA basketball committee to help select and seed tournament teams. Alabama is No. 20 in the AP and No. 99 in the RPI, and Maryland is No. 18 and No. 67 in the RPI.

Underrated? Toledo and St. Bonaventure, rated No. 6 and No. 7 in the RPI, are unranked by the AP.

Kansas Coach Roy Williams was asked on his radio show if he ever would consider playing a basketball game outdoors. “I know we wouldn’t do it here,” Williams said.

What, you think an outdoor game in Lawrence, in December, might be a little on the nippy side?