St. Louis U. coach Rick Majerus takes extended leave of absence

[Da Coach]

Rick Majerus will not coach St. Louis University this season as he takes an extended leave of absence to deal with a heart issue.
Former Evansville and Army coach Jim Crews will take over and coach this season.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/19898781/saint-louis-majerus-to-take-leave-for-season-due-to-heart-issue

[tornado]

Tough break for RickMa - needs to get healthy...wish him well........

[tornado]

Well - this week has been the revamped Athlantic-10 Media circus and all the sports guys covering it have been intensely trying to get info on what's up with Rick Majerus...but not much is known with certainty..

Just about the only info of followup on the Majerus situation doesn't really answer any questions at all.
But here's what's known...


-Saint Louis was picked by the coaches and media guys to finish 2nd in the A-10 and several who were interviewed said they would have picked them higher had Majerus been going to coach them! So they might have unseated St. Joe's as the preseason winner had Majerus been healthy.
BUT apparently Majerus has made it known he isn't even going to be anywhere on the sidelines and will have no involvement with the team - perhaps not even say anything publicly at all until well beyond the season.
There's also heavy speculation that Majerus is done-for and won't be back at all.

-Majerus was not at the Media Day, and every question about him was answered by everyone pretty much the same way...
"nobody knows"...

-The interim head coach Jim Crews did say a few things...
"Crews said SLU athletic director Chris May told him it's his job for the season and to run with it."
"He (Crews) said he is just the "keeper of the keys" for this season."
...meaning he is under the impression he might not be the head coach or interim coach next year or that possibly Majerus could be back.

He also said...that NOBODY either in the Athletic Department or at the school has actually heard from or even heard about Majerus in several weeks since he left campus..

"Majerus has been in California -- the last report was he had been in Santa Barbara -- dealing with his heart situation."
Crews said he has not talked to Majerus since he left to deal with his situation.
"To my knowledge, no one has here," said Crews. "In terms of communication, his family has shut it down.
While everyone associated with the Billiken program has Majerus in their thoughts and prayers, the team has moved on."

(all of Majerus' heart care going back a decade has been through Dr. Jim Murray, a close friend and a Santa Barbara Cardiologist. Majerus has actually even lived for periods of time up to several weeks in Dr. Murray's home while hiring a full-time private-duty nurse! When that happened he vowed he'd get better and return to Utah - but he ended up reneging on that and never did. Then when the chance to coach at USC came up he jumped at it, moved to California, and signed a deal but again reneged on that as well.)