Majerus will come out of retirement to coach at Southern California
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Rick Majerus will come out of retirement to coach Southern California’s basketball team starting at the end of the season, but will begin recruiting for the Trojans immediately. He will fill the assistant’s job vacated when Jim Saia was promoted to interim head coach after Henry Bibby was fired.
Although he will be active in recruiting, Majerus will not be on the bench for games and isn’t expected to attend practices. He will take over as head coach April 1.
The former Utah coach, who retired last January in his 15th season with the Utes because of health reasons, was signed by USC on Wednesday.
He immediately resigned his post as an ESPN basketball analyst to avoid a conflict of interest.
“I’m looking forward to my return to coaching,” Majerus said in a statement. “I missed it more than I ever imagined. There was no coaching opportunity in America except the USC job that I would have left ESPN for.”
He signed a multiyear contract. His salary was not disclosed.
The school fired Bibby last week four games into his ninth season, and gave Saia the job on an interim basis for the rest of the season. The Trojans are 1-1 since Saia took over. Bibby had a 131-111 record at USC and took the Trojans to three NCAA tournaments.
The 57-year-old Majerus was in the first year of a 5-year deal with ESPN and was expected to pay a negotiated buyout to the network, ESPN.com said. He worked his last game for the network Monday night in Philadelphia, where Wake Forest beat Temple.
Majerus coached Utah to the national championship game in 1998, losing to Kentucky, one of the school’s 10 NCAA tournament appearances during his tenure. His other coaching stints were at Ball State, Marquette and with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks as an assistant.
Majerus said he’s looking forward to joining USC football coach Pete Carroll in the athletic department.
“If he needs a Gilbert Brown-type player on occasion, maybe I’ll wander by football practice and plug up the offensive line,” the portly coach said, referring to the 340-pound former Green Bay defensive tackle.
Athletic director Mike Garrett said: “This is an amazing day for the USC men’s basketball program. Rick Majerus is one of America’s great coaches and he is one of the sport’s true personalities.”
AP-ES-12-15-04 1834EST