On Monday afternoon, the Saint Louis University basketball team moved into the Top 10 of the AP poll for the first time since 1964. In a wonderful coincidence, Monday would have been former coach Rick Majerus’ 66th birthday.
The long-time basketball coach recruited and helped mold the players on this year’s Billikens’ team; he left the team because of health issues in August and died last December of heart failure. The ascension of the team into the Top 10 was a coincidence that did not go unnoticed on Twitter by those who knew his work as a basketball coach best:
The late great Rick Majerus said this to the Oregonian, March, 2012:"We'll be a Top 10 team in about three years."SLU is No. 10 today. RIP.
— Andy Katz (@ESPNAndyKatz) February 17, 2014This is the story Katz is referring to, written by John Canzaro of The Oregonian in March 2012.
Want to talk fate: SLU moves into top 10 on Majerus' b-day, made possible because former ass't @chrisharriman24 's Husker team beat MSU
— Tom Timmermann (@tomtimm) February 17, 2014 Somewhere in "Hoops Heaven" Coach Majerus is smiling... last game together was loss to MSU in NCAA. Got em back Coach! #MissYa #GBR #Bills
— Chris Harriman (@chrisharriman24) February 17, 2014