COLUMBUS, Ohio — The NCAA tournament might not feature a better coaching matchup than Tom Izzo against Rick Majerus Sunday afternoon for a spot in the Sweet 16.
Izzo is the March wizard who has Michigan State in position to make a run for its seventh Final Four appearance in the last 14 years.
Majerus, with a near-genius basketball mind in his heyday, has resurrected his coaching career and returned to the spotlight with ninth-seeded upstart Saint Louis following his eight-year absence from the tournament.
Izzo is 36-13 (.735) in the tournament, giving him the fourth-best winning percentage among active coaches.
"March has been good to me," Izzo said. "I love March."
March has been good to Majerus, too, even though this is his first appearance since 2003. He was out of coaching for three years because of health issues and is now in his fifth year since taking over the rebuilding job with the Billikens.
Majerus is 19-11 (.633) in the NCAA tournament, including 11-1 in opening games after Friday's 61-54 victory over Memphis.
He took Utah to a Sweet 16 in 1996, a regional final in 1997 and to the Final Four and championship game in 1998.
Izzo is short, Majerus portly. It will be quite a sideline duel between them.
"I can beat Rick," Izzo said with a sly grin. "I can get him up and down the court for sure."
Izzo seems wired and extremely tight most of the time. Majerus often comes off as a lovable big fella, although he disputed the notion that he's considerably more relaxed than his counterpart.
"I have seven bypasses to prove that I'm not relaxed," Majerus said.
Izzo and his staff had to pull a near-all-nighter after Friday's victory over Long Island University to start preparing for a Majerus-coached opponent.
"This is a hard team to prepare for," Izzo said. "(Majerus) brings a lot of different things, a lot of pro things. They're coming with different sets. They've got a lot in their repertoire."
For Izzo, that makes the challenge that much better. This is when he's at his best.
What stands out most about his resume in March is a 16-3 record on one-day preps in the NCAA tournament.
Izzo gathered the team for a video session and walkthrough after returning to the hotel from Friday's game around 12:30 a.m. The coaching staff went over Saint Louis' top 10 plays before sending the players to bed.
"He don't sleep," senior captain Draymond Green said of Izzo's approach when there's less than 40 hours between games. "And if he's not sleeping, his assistants aren't sleeping.
"They have the teams well scouted-out and put us in the best position to win."
Before taking the floor for Sunday's tip at approximately 2:45 p.m. ET, Michigan State will have gone through five or six of these video sessions/walkthroughs (15-30 minutes each). It's a routine that started back in 1998 when the Spartans were playing in their first NCAA tournament during Izzo's third year as coach.
The mini-practices, with breaks in between to keep the players' minds fresh, are typically held in a ballroom at their hotel.
Before each weekend during the tournament, Izzo typically will tell his players, "You win the first game, I'll get you through the second."
"When I say I'll get you through it or we'll get you through it, meaning our staff, it's just in preparation," Izzo said. "They still got to play the game. But we feel like, without tiring them out, we'll have them ready to play.
"Maybe that's a little bit of an advantage. Maybe they feel some confidence that we have been there before."
Rarely, if ever, is another team ever better prepared than one coached by Majerus, though. He insists that at age 63, he's not quite as sharp as he used to be.
He says his recall after watching video of an opponent isn't as good. He says he gets tired faster, but quickly adds that he's "not too tired to win."
"Sometimes I get disappointed because I'm not the coach I used to be," Majerus said.
His team certainly isn't playing right now as if the coach has lost anything. The Billikens, ranked eighth in the nation in points allowed and 11th in turnover margin, are tough and disciplined. They put intense pressure on the ball. They fight through screens. They play great help defense when a teammate gets beat.
They can struggle to score at times, but they are almost always unselfish and patiently wait for the best shot possible.
Majerus believes his team has no legitimate NBA prospects. He considers the Billikens "better than the sum of our parts."
"They don't make a lot of mistakes, they don't beat themselves," Izzo said. "The post players are as fundamental as anybody in the country. I think that has been something he (Majerus) hangs his hat on."
It's been a tough journey back here for Majerus. He stepped down as Utah's coach at midseason in January 2004, citing health reasons.
After three years as a television analyst, Majerus took the job at Saint Louis, which decided to make a serious commitment to building a quality program. The Billikens won 23 games by his third year, but took a step back last season, finishing 12-19.
That's the only losing season in his career, but there were reasons. Nothing went right.
Majerus lost his top two scorers after they were suspended by the university, he missed a few games because of an infection in his leg and he was traveling back and forth constantly between St. Louis and Milwaukee to visit his ailing mother, who died last summer.
Just a rough year all around, but that's in the past. Majerus has the Billkens back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2000.
It's no surprise that he's been embraced by the Saint Louis University (SLU) fan base. There was a sign Friday night at Nationwide Arena with Majerus' head on a super-hero's body with the heading "SLUperman."
Majerus laughed when he was told about it, saying, "That was probably a restaurant owner."
He's full of laughs and never takes himself too seriously. He's one of the more popular coaches around, just like Izzo.
The two are total opposites in some ways, but they're a lot alike in others. They're going to go head-to-head with two teams that have similar personalities except for one big difference — Izzo's group has considerably more firepower.
Majerus is going to have to be the coach he used to be — and then some — to beat Izzo on a one-day prep under these circumstances.
But if anybody can do that with lesser talent, it's Rick Majerus.
MORE MAJERUS ONE-LINERS
On his mentor, the late Al McGuire: "Al died with what I call Irish Alzheimer's. He forgot everything but his enemies."
Comparing a heart-transplant surgeon being late for a meeting to a college basketball player being late: "Those guys (doctors) being late, fine. But these are 18-year-olds who are late because they're watching Def Jam Comedy Hour or something."
On Izzo: "He's a guy that you could get together with and talk ball. Nowadays, (coaches) talk shoe contracts, radio-show revenue. Izzo is a throwback."
