According to ESPN's Andy Katz, USC and Rick Majerus have come to terms on a five-year deal.
USC fans should be jumping for joy.
Rick Majerus is without question, one of the best coaches in all of college basketball. He's in the same league as Coach K, Roy Williams, Lute Olson, Jim Calhoun, or Rick Pitino. UCLA probably should have hired him two years ago. Majerus was amazing at Utah, turning a nothing program into about the best a mid-major could be on a regular basis. He nearly won a national championship with the Utes.
Majerus is an excellent teacher, and has a shrewd basketball mind. He's unconventional. After all, he lived in a hotel, ate his heart out, and rejected dozens of overtures to major conferences schools. But he gets the job done.
The obvious question with Majerus is his health. He's taking the rest of this season off, to supposedly rest up and get healthy. He'll need the time, considering he left Utah due to health reasons. But this is USC basketball. It can afford to take a chance. In this case, the risk is moderate, but the reward is extremely high.
Now, I'd be very worried if I was a UCLA fan. USC has always been regarded as a sleeping giant in college basketball. Now, in addition to building a new on-campus arena, the Trojans have a truly great coach. With Ben Howland's Bruins playing a style that doesn't really fit his players or this city, in an outdated arena that badly needs renovation, in suddenly inadequate practice facilities, USC is poised to pass UCLA as the center of the LA college hoops world. It may or may not happen, but if UCLA wants John Wooden basketball to be more than just a memory, it should start making improvements of its own.
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are you kidding? pauley pavilion has something that sc's arena wont have for decades.... 11 championship banners. furthermore, howland's team is getting in the right shape, just look at his recruiting classes. i understand that you're probably just anxious for sc to stop the suck at basketball, but don't try to make such wild assumptions.
Phil-arino: Your last paragraph ruined a pretty decent post. Yes, Rick Majerus is a good coach. But you let your wishful thinking and your anti-UCLA bias ruin the story. It's insufferable enough having Tommy Trojan post the sports stories here, and i try to ignore them as much as possible, but here goes: The Bruins have the right coach, their last two recruiting classes have been A-1, (in another year we'll be almost top to bottom in blue-chip recruits) and as steve so eloquently posted, 11 championship banners. Yeah, Philly, we're shaking in our boots here in Westwood over Majerus signing on. I'll start reading the sports posts again when LAist gets a nonpartisan writer to contribute, not a Trojan honk.
You UCLA fans are so sensitive.
Yes, I'm a USC fan. But I try to be as fair and honest as possible. I think I was here.
Obviously Pauley Pavillion has a great history and tradition attached to it. It's a basketball cathedral. But it's badly in need of renovation. Once the Galen Center is completed, USC will be able to compete with UCLA in basketball facilities for the first time ever.
Ben Howland has no doubt done a great job in recruiting. But I don't think his system will work all that well in LA. UCLA will not fall off the face of the basketball world. But how far can you go with a slow, ugly, defensive style in a city where flash and style generally reign supreme? Ask Trevor Ariza what he thinks of it. And it's not like Pitt ever made it past the Sweet 16 under Howland. Maybe I'm wrong, but I am not overly impressed with what I've seen from Howland so far.
We shall see.
Fair and honest? Sounds suspiciously like Fox News' "Fair and Balanced." Don't worry about Ben Howland and UCLA, we'll be just fine. Worry more about your sleeping (nothing giant about it) program and their average attendance of 3000 and whether your school will finally support basketball. We SHALL see.
So much for a sleeping giant. USC will now be lucky if they get Pepperdine's coach. And now the glory of a new arena will be met with silence from all the empty seats and the lackluster b-ball program that the school hates.