Leave of Absences: Majerus Missed All or Most of Four Seasons

Rick Majerus, one of the all-time Top 50 coaches, passed away in early December - three months after longstanding health issues surfaced again, forcing him to miss a season for the fourth time in his coaching career. Complicating things at the time were Majerus' age (64) plus the fact his original six-year contract with Saint Louis expired after this campaign and the school chose not to secure an extension despite him making Billiken hoops relevant again.

SLU interim Jim Crews inherited a squad that should end his personal nine-year streak of losing records with Evansville and Army because the Billikens are the consensus preseason favorite to win the Atlantic 10 title. It will be a major surprise if Crews doesn't win more conference games this season than he did over his first five years with Army in the Patriot League (nine). Crews, who guided Evansville to four NCAA playoff appearances, probably would be content to duplicate Kerry Rupp's 24-9 overall record in 2003-04 when Rupp was Majerus' third different interim with Utah.

Prior to arriving at SLU, an overweight Majerus underwent seven heart bypass procedures ("one for each food group" he joked) before having a stent inserted last summer. He previously hadn't been out for an extended period while with the Bills but did miss a total of six contests for an assortment of reasons - one because of food poisoning, one after ingesting the wrong mixture of medicine, three after incurring a severe leg infection when a couple of players diving for a loose ball collided with him and one when his girlfriend was in an automobile accident.

Majerus set a scholastic standard most coaches can't come remotely close to duplicating when his 1998 Utah squad became the only Final Four team ever to feature three Academic All-Americans among its regulars - Michael Doleac, Drew Hansen and Hanno Mottola.

But no coach ever has had as many extended leave of absences like Majerus. Among marquee mentors, head-coach designate Sean Sutton guided Oklahoma State to a 4-6 record in 2005-06 after his father compiled a 13-10 mark before taking a medical leave of absence following an automobile accident.

Most interim coaches who temporarily replace a prominent mentor don't compile a mark anywhere close to the success Rupp managed with the Utes. Following is an alphabetical list of prominent coaches since World War II who, similar to Majerus, didn't retire at the time but missed all or about half a season for a variety of reasons: