HOOPS: I am one of the few people here that can say what Coach is really like
Posted By: UtePimp
Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2002, at 12:22 a.m.
I was one of the Managers of the squad a couple of years back (Al and Hanno's last year). I have seen an entire season of practices, games and locker rooms. I can tell you what coach is like with the players, coaches and people in general.
Practice: I had heard the stories about how intolerable practices were. I had heard that playing for Majerus was very hard and that he was a difficult man to please. So, I am here to tell you what I saw. I had the benefit of an entire season. All of what I have is first hand information (no urban legends).
During my senior year I got word that they were looking for help, so I volunteered. I was at the first practice. The scene was like this. 6 Hoops on the Huntsman center floor. All of the players were on the floor at least 30 minutes before practices. They had drills that they did with eachother and the assistants would start running some drills as they got to the floor. There were two video cameras set up on about the 25th row with the video coordinator working the cameras. We had a few managers around, the walkons helped run drills, but generally the time before practice consisted of free throws, stretching and shooting. Then coach walked down the stairs and to midcourt. He called the team together.
He spoke briefly. Said that it was an honor to be their coach and that he was glad to be back in practice. Then he broke into a drill. Coach plans practices in advance and has sheets that tell how much time he wants to spend on various drills. One manager has the task of standing next to coach and telling him how far into each practice the team is. The coaching began from the first second. The main floor was split. Bigs on one side (Nate, Hanno, Puzey, Burgess, Sluga) smalls on the other side (Colbert, Whiting, Jeff J, Al, Tony Harvey, Killion, Nick). They ran a drill showing the variations of the motion offense. Any mistakes coach would yell to show the video. The video coordinator would switch tapes, bring the tape down, and show the player what the mistake was in the team room. This was the normal procedure. Drills varied in length of time and conditioning drills were mixed throughout.
I was amazed at how quiet the practices were. I was ready for the tirades. None came. Did players make mistakes and have to run? Yes! The first week of practices went twice per day. After a couple of days coach brought the team together and told them how proud he was of them. He felt like they were working hard.
Then he came to practice the following day. He had gone home and watched the practices on video. He realized that one of the players was not running his laps when he was not watching. This was the first tirade that I saw of coach. He basically yelled at the guy for being lazy and for having a "piece of shit attitude." It did not last very long. Long enough, however it was not out of line. I remember thinking that he was just getting warmed up. This was not the type of outburst that I expected from coach. Frankly, I expected much worse. The player really did have a bad attitude and a poor work ethic. The players got breaks whenever the captains asked for them. A break consisted of getting water and shooting foul shots, then back to the last or on to the next drill. This was how things were done. This was the pattern of the whole season.
I saw a few tirades, but nothing crossed the line. Keep in mind folks that I am LDS and a return missionary.
Coach would get mad for the following 1) Making repeated mistakes that had been addressed by him, the video and the staff. He would only get on the player if he had tried to show the correct way on a couple of occasions and the error persisted. 2) Laziness. Any time that he saw somebody being lazy he would become irate. 3)Academics if a player was caught not going to class, he would get reprimanded.
Coach is not a friend to the players. His expectations vary from player to player. He was harder on Hanno, Tony and Jeff Johnsen than he was on Al and Jeremy Killion. He loved Sluga. He was harder on the players with more talent. His reason was simple, he wanted them to be their best to get a chance of playing at the next level.
Did he use foul language? Yes
Did he attack kids personally? No
Coach did not resort to personal attacks. He would only attack those things that the players should control, repeated mental mistakes, bad attitudes and laziness. Everybody made mistakes, it was only the chronic mistakes that drew the strong reprimands.
I have played for High School football coaches that were many times worse than coach Majerus. The High School basketball coach at my alma mater was worse. Worse verbally (language) and personally.
I was friends with the team, and I can tell you that the hardest part of playing for Coach is that it is always intense and he is critical. The players didn't like practices much, but they knew that it was necessary and that they were improving. We would swap stories about various things that were said it was like reliving battle stories. There were some pretty funny things.
Every player said the same thing, "We knew that it was going to be tough when we came here."
Coach does not sugar coat the recruits. They sat in the same practices that I did. They were usually with their families and their HS coaches.
When Chris got hurt, I asked him if coach K was as "bad" as coach Majerus in practice. He said that he was.
Practices may be closed to the public. However, coach always had coaches that were visiting from around the nation (HS, JC etc.) We often had entire local HS teams sitting in practice.
One more thing, I still know many people in the program, all of the info that I have gotten has said that coach is more mellow than he has been in the past. My info does not come from somebody's mom.
Just food for thought
In summary, I hope that I have given you an idea what practices are really like.
From another fly on the wall...
Posted By: Ute
King
Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2002, at 10:26 a.m.
In Response To: HOOPS: I am one of the few people here that can say what Coach is really like (UtePimp)
"There have been a few players who have left Utah because they thought Coach was too hard on them, too demanding. I've always said that Coach was harder on me than any players he's ever had. But I was able to take it.
Players need to keep in perspective the reasons why he's so demanding. It's isn't to be mean, and it isn't personal. He's demanding because he sees potential in every player and he wants you to fulfill it. It doesn't matter if you're a walk-on or a starter; he wants you to be the best player you can be. He wants you to be the best person you can be. And players don't realize it while they're playing for him, but in many aspects he's a father figure. He was for me."
- Keith Van Horn, Foreword to My Life on a Napkin
I was at Powell's yesterday, and before leaving, decided to check and see if they had a copy of My Life on a Napkin. I'd checked it out from the library a couple of times over the last couple of years, but with all of the controversy brewing here, I thought it might be a good idea to give it a spin again. A lot of you should do the same.
Go UTES!!
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