Rick Majerus to SLU is now a done deal

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch breaks the news.

what amounts to a major change in the way St. Louis University is approaching basketball, SLU has hired former Utah coach Rick Majerus to replace Brad Soderberg, who was fired on April 17.

Majerus, one of the most successful coaches in college basketball in recent years, will be introduced at a news conference on Monday at 10 a.m.

Majerus, 59, has been out of coaching since stepping down from Utah in the middle of the 2004 season due to health concerns. Since then, he has been working for ESPN as an analyst, though his name has surfaced with several other job openings.

In the past, SLU has hired assistant coaches or head coaches at smaller schools looking to step up in the world. In Majerus, SLU has hired one of the biggest names in the business, a coach regarded for his basketball acumen, though whose sometimes prickly demeanor has alienated many over the years. Majerus will likely make more than $1 million,

Majerus was the only coach SLU contacted about the job, and the only one to have an on-campus interview. After meeting with school officials over the weekend, the two sides went into lengthy discussions that have finally reached a conclusion.

Of course, with Majerus, it still might not be over. He took the job at USC in December of 2004, only to change his mind a few days later and say he wasn’t up for the job.

Majerus attended Marquette and played as a walk-on as a freshman in 1967 but he was cut from the team before the following season. He graduated in 1970 and spent the next 12 seasons at the school, first as an assistant to Al McGuire, then to McGuire’s successor, Hank Raymonds.