FanHouse Rick Majerus

Saint Louis University basketball coach Rick Majerus is supporting Hillary Clinton for president, and he made an appearance for her campaign on Saturday.

Now Majerus could be in hot water with his employer. Saint Louis is a Catholic school, and Majerus said he is pro-choice on abortion and that he supports stem cell research. St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke says Majerus should be disciplined -- and maybe even fired:

During an interview with the Post-Dispatch today in Washington, where Burke is attending the March for Life, he said the coach should be disciplined.

"It's not possible to be a Catholic and hold those positions," Burke said. "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everythign the Catholic church teaches. But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic church."

The archbishop declined to offer specifics of what discipline Majerus should face. "I'm confident it (the university) will deal with the question of a public representative making declarations that are inconsistent with the Catholic faith."

Burke has a long history of using his position in the Catholic church to criticize Democrats and Catholics who support Democrats, and Majerus is just the latest person to feel his wrath.

Hat tip: Sports by Brooks. Sorry, No Photos

It's not often that the Atlantic 10 gets three teams into the Top 25 at the same time. It's even rarer that all three of those teams lose games within 24 hours of each other but thanks to the resurgent Saint Louis Billikens that's just what's happened. They shut down the league's best shooting team for a surprising 68-61 win.

Rick Majerus's crew followed up their 20-point embarassment by taking Dayton to overtime but this was still very unexpected. Rhode Island has been piling up points all season while SLU has struggled to find the basket with any consistency. That makes last night's game the basketball versiot of the Judge Reinhold classic Vice Versa.

Saint Louis made 54.5% of their shots while the Rams converted just 34.3% of theirs. Will Daniels and Jimmy Baron average 35 points a game for URI, they combined for 22. Tommy Liddell, averaging 12 a night for Majerus, came up with 22 on 9-of-12 shooting. Up was down, black was white and the Rams are now 1-2 in the A-10.

I don't foresee it happening but the last two days have been a reminder of how close to the edge this conference lives. Dayton, Xavier and Rhode Island all lost the kinds of games that take away some of their luster and it won't take too many more for their tournament standing to get precarious.

There's been no doubt about which mid major conference has been the biggest surprise to this point of the season. The Atlantic 10 has played the eighth toughest non-conference slate in the country and has a sparkling 113-65 record to show for their efforts. They've beaten teams from just about every one of the power conferences, they've won on the road and at neutral sites and reclaimed the standard that they ceded to the Missouri Valley conference in recent years.

You have to go back to 2004 to find a year when the league landed more than two teams in the big dance and, entering this season, it didn't seem like things would be all that different. Everyone knew Xavier is a consistently strong program but it was hard to find too many bullish projections about a second team that should be making March plans. What a difference two months make.

As of right now, it's almost impossible to see the league landing fewer than four teams in the tournament. Seven teams are in the top 67 of the RPI, three teams in the Top 25 and they've compiled so many quality wins that, barring a complete collapse by two of the front-runners, anything less would be criminal.

Let's break it down:

One of the best moves the Horizon League has ever made was their decision to welcome Valparaiso to the fold this season. The Crusaders helped the conference to a 5-1 mark in games played Sunday and they are 10-1 after routing Chicago State 90-61. The vowel obsessed Samuel Haanpaa hit 10 three-pointers and finished with 32 points to lead Valpo to their eighth straight victory. The Finnish sharpshooter and the rest of Homer Drew's crew will have to be at their best over the next two weeks to keep the winning streak alive. They play at Wisconsin and then travel to Chapel Hill on December 30 in games that could go a long way toward deciding how many Horizon clubs make the Big Dance.

Butler will certainly be one of them. A.J. Graves shook off his recent struggles and buried seven threes of his own to lead the #19 Bulldogs to a 79-68 win over Florida State. The win, technically a neutral siter despite being in Indianapolis, puts the loss to Wright State well into the rear-view. Those Raiders had another impressive win, coming back from 16 down to beat Miami of Ohio 58-57. Illinois-Chicago beat DePaul for Windy City bragging rights while their Land of Lincoln compatriots at Loyola knocked off Northern Illinois to round out a great day for the Horizon.

The rest of the winners and losers after the jump.

In wins against Ohio State and Detroit, Butler was able to overcome poor games by A.J. Graves and Mike Green. Freshman forward Matt Howard had strong games and Butler prevailed without playing their best. The third time wasn't the charm, however, as Graves played poorly again and the Bulldogs were knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten at Wright State. To be fair, his teammates weren't much better in the 43-42 loss. They shot 32% from the floor as a whole, led by their backcourt's 4-of-23 brickfest. Graves had a chance to win the game at the buzzer but missed a three and Wright State's fans flooded the court in a frenzy after knocking off the nation's 13th ranked team.

Unlike those previous games, though, Howard couldn't pick up the slack. He finished with just five points to complete a defensive effort that should make coach Brad Brownell very proud of his Raiders. Offensively, Wright didn't do much to overwhelm the Bulldogs but they moved the ball, found the open man and made the most of their limited opportunities.

Elsewhere on the mid-major hardcourts:

Give St. Louis University credit for making a late decision on firing and hiring a coach. They have seemingly captured a lot more attention than a mid-level A-10 school that has 6 NCAA Tournament appearances in its history should. Heck, the AOL NCAA Basketball Blog almost appears to be a Billiken Blog.

One of the little side stories is the persistent rumor that St. Louis may now look to bolt the A-10 after only a few years to get back into the Missouri Valley Conference. It has been reported that Rick Majerus himself, was pushing for it as a precondition to taking the job. A conference on which they bailed in 1974 after 37 years. To be fair, they were hardly the only school to jump out of the MVC at that time. Cincinnati (1969), Memphis (1973), Louisville and North Texas (1974) all skipped out on the MVC in the same period. Since then, they have been in 5 more conferences. Seemingly striving for higher profile conferences, even as their own profile remained distinctly mediocre.

Since this is the off-season, and the NBA draft is still far enough away not to be relevant, there is some debate and curiosity about this. There appears to be serious buyers remorse in St. Louis about going to the A-10.

Inevitably, the report from Sports By Brooks report that rick Majerus is bound for St. Louis, is overshadowed (and that's not easy to do when the subject matter involves the voluminous Rick Majerus). The report also mentions that Majerus is on his way to St. Louis with his girlfriend. I'm just having trouble picturing his girlfriend. Well, not exactly. I, unfortunately am stuck with visions of Amy Poehler screaming "Rick! Rick! Rick!" at Horatio Sanz. The only difference is that Majerus can keep a straight face.

At this time, there is nothing on the St. Louis Billiken website, nor from Majerus' present employer, ESPN. I guess I have trouble believing Majerus is serious and will stay on the job until he gets past at least the first two weeks without changing his mind.

Previously on Fanhouse:
St. Louis Billikens Aim High -- For Now
Rick Majerus Could Be Next Coach at Saint Louis

It is now going on year 20 and 4 coaches since St. Louis University President, Rev. Lawrence Biondi's goal for having a perennial top-50 basketball program. Heck, that goal was listed in the Billiken press release when Brad Sodenberg was suddenly fired in mid-April.

It was determined that a coaching change is necessary if the University is to achieve its goal of consistently having one of the nation's top basketball programs.

There was something somewhat refreshing in the blatant honesty in the press release for firing the coach.

Because the success of the new Chaifetz Arena is largely contingent on the success of the men's basketball team, it is imperative that the team be led by a coach who we believe can establish a program that consistently vies for conference championships and engages in postseason play. The new head coach also must be committed to the University's history of following NCAA regulations and graduating its student-athletes.

Note, of course, that wins come first. The rest comes under, "also." The reason for the firing is clearly there. Money. The Billikens are moving into a new on campus arena and having 50% or less capacity as it has been at the Scottrade Arena won't cut it. They need real revenue that comes from a packed house.

Now you know why they are going after a name like Majerus. They need him. He's a name that generates instant credibility and buzz about a program that has made itself a nomad. Having been in 6 conferences in the past 33 years -- Missouri Valley until 1974; Metro to 1982; the now Horizon League (previously called the Midwestern Collegiate) through 1991; the Great Midwest/Conference USA (C-USA was a merger of the Great Midwest and the Metro) until 2004; and now in the Atlantic 10.