During the original recruiting process Utah was one of the schools on Burgess's short list. However he heard about Majerus pulling down his pants in front of Doleac and grabbing his private part and screaming "this is 6 inches." At that point Burgess scratched Utah off his list. Trust me, he has no desire to play for Majerus. He's heard other stories concerning vulgarity and Majerus at practice, and would rather not deal with it. Look for him to go on a mission as soon as the season is over and then end up at BYU.

...Rick won't put up with cry babies and whiners. This stuff is absolutely ridiculous and it gets my dander up!

If this story is indeed true, tough! Who the heck cares? I don't give a good rat's hindquarters about this story and or any other Majerus rumors.

His record speaks louder than any silly rumor can. He produces great
STUDENT ATHLETES. They succeed both in the classroom and on the court. PERIOD! His team right now has the highest GPA of any team in the WAC. Andre Miller, a prop 48, graduated and is now taking graduate level courses! Drew Hansen and Mike Doleac were on the first NCAA finals team to have two Academic All-Americans. Rick breeds success!

A couple of notes here:

1) I am an active Mormon, but I like a good dirty joke as much as anyone else. If Rick whipped it out and I had been there, no one would have laughed harder than me! Those pious folks down in the Happy Valley can shove it. That's what separates the good from the ugly, and they are mighty ugly down there in multi-level marketing land.

2) If Burgess can't handle that little silly story, there's no way in hell he'd end up at the U. Sobeit! It sounds to me like the kid needs to scrap Div 1 basketball and take a cruise. He doesn't like it tough! Should he go to Utah with that kind of an attitude? Hell no. He'd never succeed in Majerus' complex program.

I say let the punk transfer to the community college program that Cleveland is "re-building" in Provo.

I try my best to not listen to dirty jokes or laugh at them, but I'll have to admit that I've disliked Rick Majerus a lot less since hearing the "whip it out" story.
I hope it's true.
It's funny.

Despite my view of the situation, however, I'm not so narrow minded that I don't understand how a kid such as Burgess would not want to play for someone who would do that.

: Despite my view of the situation, however, I'm not so narrow minded that I don't understand how a kid such as Burgess would not want to play for someone who would do that.

I can understand too. and it's totally his choice. but i think burgess has some lofty goals... to play in the NBA. and until he buckles down and learns the game, he'll have little chance of succeeding. sometimes you have to "suck it up" and if chris is offended by rick's language and he let's that impede his potential collegiate and NBA success, then he's clearly not committed.

does chris understand the potential pitfalls of NBA language? i'm sure that pitino, riley, daly, and calapari are very cautious about the words they use with their players. i'm sure that if chris was to become offended by obscene language in the NBA, he'd have little trouble working out a trade to a team that has a clean language policy.

if Burgess is as picky and whiny as he's being billed, then he shows a severe lack of commitment.

look at it this way:

let's say i have lofty career goals. i want to be the best i can be in my field. i have the opportunity to apprentice with one of the finest members of my chosen field. but along the way, i hear rumors of this person's language. i could be offended. well, hell yes i could be offended, but i could also learn a great deal and become a huge success because of the amount of time i've spent with this person. of course, i could choose to apprentice with some other dude who just got into the same area and hope i learn enough to achieve my goals. at least i know his language will be clean!

makes NO sense to me.

Chris, go and play for Rick. Suck it up! If he whips it out, smack that thing and tell your coach the next time you see it you'll give him a Lorena Bobbitt! Laugh. It's good for you! and you'll become a better player for having endured this heinous behavior!

The story I heard on Burgess was that his dad told Majerus that Chris would go to Utah if Majerus could guarantee him 15-20 shots a game and that Chris would be gone after two years to play in the NBA. After that, Utah kind of backed off. His dad may have said that because he knew his son didn't want to play there anyway, I don't know. However, my impression was that Burgess was pretty arrogant and that he wouldn't be much of a team player. It seems to me like Burgess has been humbled a little bit. On the other hand, if he was humble, maybe he would stick it out at Duke and work his butt off to become a major impact player.

All I can say is that Chris Burgess plays on the #1 team in the nation right now. A team that would absolutely demolish the Utes. He may not start but he plays. Chris would start on any other team in the nation so I think you can pretty much shut up pal.

What could you possibly know about who could "demolish" the Utes? Last year the Utes demolished the best of the ACC and Pac 10 and the two top ranked teams in the nation. (You're one to talk; BYU football can't claim anything close to a comparable achievement even in its golden years.) We know this much--the Utes have demolished your team nine times in a row now. And that's really root of your problem, and what's so irritating to your kind, isn't it? It's hard to be fair minded when you're insane with jealousy. BYU would be very fortunate and proud to have a coach like Majerus.

Whoa! Looks like it was quite a night on the board. I thought I would share a few thoughts:

On Majerus:

I've never met the man so I can't give any personal insight. Of course he's not perfect. Who is? One of my biggest problems with some BYU fans is that because they think they're cheering for "the Lord's Team" *they* are the good guys and everyone else (especially Utah) is evil. I wish that the anti-Majerus people (and even the fanatically pro-Majerus people) could see that this is not a clearly drawn black/white issue. Yes Majerus yells at his players. If this surprises you or offends you then you have never played sports before. Yelling is what coaches do. They may even be rude or belligerent when they do it. And--shock!--they may even use profanity. If you don't think this goes on at BYU, then you're blind. I went to BYU's football camp in high school and there is no way Majerus has said anything worse than I heard come out of Roger French's mouth.

I realize not all players will want to put up with Majerus' style. And I think that's fine. If Jessie Pinnegar or Chris Burgess or anyone else doesn't want to be yelled at for four years, then I don't think they should play for Utah. And I don't think Utah fans should call them lazy or spoiled for not wanting to play for Majerus either. Some players just don't like that. And if they are offended by the "six-inches" thing, that's acceptable too. Although, anyone who can't see at least some humor in a 300 pound man openly grabbing himself while he is in a fit of rage, is in serious need of an enema.

Now, if Majerus is such a bad guy, like the anti-Majerus folks claim, why is it that former players rave about him? Why does Keith Van Horn call him a pseudo-father? Why did Drew Hansen have the crowd chant Rick, Rick, Rick. . . last year when he thought he might leave Utah for ASU? Why did several families send not one, but two sons to play for him? Why do the Rydalches and Johnsens still regularly invite him into their home? And why would people like Jon Huntsman and Rex Lee even associate with him? Why did he fly to El Paso to stay with Don Haskins in the hospital when he had heart surgery? Why did he come to Roger Reid's defense (a guy who had publicly ripped Majerus for years) after he was fired? Yeah, Majerus is a real jerk.

No, Majerus is no saint. But he is no devil either. Based on what I know about him, I would love to play for him or send my sons to play for him. He seems like a decent enough guy to me.

On BYU fan's jealousy of Majerus:

It's understandable. BYU hasn't beaten Utah in 4 years. But why resort to personal attacks (see above)? And why try to undermine Rick as a coach? If you were to take a poll of every college coach in the country and every sports writer and broadcaster in the country as to who the best college coach is right now, there is no doubt that Majerus would finish in the top 3. If you think otherwise you are:
1) crazy 2) an idiot 3) a dumb-ass 4) all of the above (thanks MalmUTE). To say Rick's program is going to crash after Andre graduates is idiotic. Rick went 30-4 and to the Sweet 16 with essentially the same players that finished 7th in an 8 team WAC the year before. As long as Rick is around I feel totally confident in saying:

1. The Utes will compete for the MWC championship every year.

2. They will make the NCAAs almost every year.

3. They will be a legitimate top 10 team on a regular basis.

BYU fans, your are just going to have to deal with this. Sort of like we Utah fans must deal with what Lavell Edwards has done for BYU football. Interesting, though, I'll bet 90% of Utah fans (myself included) think Lavell is a class act, have no personal ill will towards him, and think he is one of the great college football coaches. I wish more BYU fans had the same attitude about Majerus.

On Chris Burgess:

The guy was at one time the best high school player the country. Unfortunately, he now plays behind maybe the best college player in the country. Ok, second best. Anyway, if he was willing to work hard, put up with Majerus, and be a team player, why wouldn't Utah want him?

On Meads vs. Pinnegar

They must both be pretty good if they are top 50 to top 10 high school players on nearly everyone's list. I've never seen them play so I don't know. I would be cautious turning this into a BYU/Utah thing though since the Utes do not have any indication that Meads is going there. I sure hope he does. Any time you have a player that good in your back yard, you don't want to let him get away. We'll see though.

Sorry this was so long. I'll ground myself from the board for the rest of the day.

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