Coaches Connect In Troubled Times Majerus, Haskins Also Mirror Each Other Off The Court

At times, it seems as though Utah’s Rick Majerus and his idol Don Haskins of Texas-El Paso are mirror images.

The rival Western Athletic Conference basketball coaches both have burly physiques. The pair virtually spit fire from the sidelines. And they’ve both translated that competitive spirit into success on the court.

Since Haskins suffered a heart attack last week, he and Majerus also have shared the burden of the anxieties and doubts that follow multiple-bypass surgery.

“We’re a club of two now, I think, Haskins and I, what with us being coaches and having heart bypass surgery,” Majerus said Friday before visiting Haskins in the hospital again. “I don’t know of another coach out there.”

Haskins and Majerus were friends before this, as shown by the fact the Utah coach flew into town Monday, a day before his team arrived to prepare for a game with UTEP. He wanted to reassure Haskins before the surgery.

During the week that followed, Majerus, a longtime student of Haskins’ coaching technique, became the teacher as he explained what recovery would entail, what Haskins had to do and what he shouldn’t do.

“His first question to me was, ‘Is this over? The coaching,’ ” Majerus said. ” ‘Or will it affect it adversely?’ I said no. I told him he’ll be a better coach and he’ll have more energy, more enthusiasm.”

Majerus knew because he’d been there before.

The Utah coach was forced off the bench for all but six games of the 1989-90 season after undergoing his bypass operation.

He came back strong, however, and has enjoyed much success. This season, his team is ranked No. 10 and is considered a frontrunner for the WAC title.

But because of his experiences, basketball has at least temporarily become a secondary concern. He couldn’t enjoy Utah’s 68-54 victory over UTEP on Thursday.

“It was really weird,” he said a day later, while packing up his things in an El Paso hotel room. “I didn’t like anything about the game last night. I didn’t like the fact he wasn’t there.”

Asked why he is so concerned about Haskins, Majerus gave a couple of answers.

“You know Haskins is a hero of mine for what he’s meant to the game, what he’s been to the game,” Majerus said. “I think out of respect for him, out of that regard for him, it was good to come.”

Later, just moments before he was about to leave, he gave another reason.

Majerus recalled that last season, during another UTEP-Utah game in El Paso, he had gotten into a shouting match with a UTEP trainer.

“The next day, Haskins called me up and I thought he was going to be mad at me,” Majerus said. “But he said, ‘I just wanted to call you. You were so red and you were so upset that I was really worried about you.’

“That’s as much a reason as any that I came down here. It was the middle of the season, just like right now. He was in the conference race for the championship and his concern was for my health. You, know I never forgot that.”

Mirror images, indeed.