WASHINGTON — Alex Jensen, at some point late Saturday night, will go
online or check his phone to find out the score of the BYU-Utah game in
Provo. But you will have to excuse Jensen, the former Ute star from
Viewmont High, if he doesn't follow the game as closely as he could.
Jensen
has his own Division I conference showdown to deal with on the other
side of the country, though the passion for Saint Louis at Richmond in
the Atlantic 10 Conference may not rival that of BYU hosting Utah.
Jensen, 33, is in his third year on the coaching staff at Saint Louis
and his second as an assistant with the Billikens.
The
man in charge is head coach Rick Majerus, who coached the Utes from
1989 to 2004. Jensen was a key player on the 1997-98 team that went 30-4
and lost in the NCAA title game to Kentucky.
\"It
has been great. I guess I am biased since I played with him, but there
is no better person to learn from,\" Jensen said. \"I learned a lot from
him as a player. Who better to learn from?\"
Looking
back, Jensen has fond memories of the Utah-BYU rivalry. \"My first year
(in 1994-95) they were pretty good. The first game I started (in the
series) was at their place. They won that game but we won the return
trip,\" said Jensen.
\"If you won that
game you had a good chance to win the league,\" he added. \"My memories
were of full arenas. Like all rivalries it was more important than just
another game.\"
Jensen, who served a Mormon mission in London after his freshman season with the Utes,
graduated from Utah in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in finance. His
family still lives in the Salt Lake area, and Jensen owns a home in
Utah in which his sister lives.
What are his best memories?
\"For
all the time and work you do, it is winning, which we did a lot of, and
some of my best friends today are teammates and coaches. Winning with
people that you had a good time with, I have come to appreciate that,\"
said Jensen.
The wins have been
harder to come by at Saint Louis, which is 12-7 overall and 3-2 in the
Atlantic 10 going into Saturday's game at Richmond. Last year Saint
Louis was 18-14, and in the first year under Majerus in 2007-08 the
team was 16-15.
Jensen played six
years of pro basketball in Turkey and also played for a CBA title team
in 2002-03. When he learned that Majerus had taken the Saint Louis job,
Jensen joined the staff. \"I felt it was time for me to move on,\" he
said. \"Everything I have learned has come from him.\"
\"Alex
was the best defensive player and rebounder that I have ever coached,\"
Majerus said in 2007 when he hired Jensen. \"Alex is a student of the
game and court smart. He will bring those attributes to coaching.\"
As an assistant Jensen has typical duties such as scouting and recruiting and focuses on post play and defense.
\"The
hardest thing is recruiting,\" said Jensen, who notes Saint Louis is a
strong academic school a long way from many of its conference foes. \"I
thought it would be easier. Some people are built for it. I have gotten
better at it. Coach says all the time that players win games and not
coaches.\"
Jensen was the most active
of the three Saint Louis assistants during the game at GW, standing and
hollering instructions on many occasions. During a timeout with 1:32
left in regulation and his team up 53-51, Jensen stood with his back to
the court as the players listened to Majerus. Jensen then walked around
to the baseline side of the group and gave some instructions to
sophomore guard Kyle Cassity, who thew the ball inbounds near the team
bench after the stop in play. Jensen said after the game it is
agonizing as a coach to watch a team lose a lead. \"As a coach you don't
have as much control as a player,\" said Jensen, who works out regularly
with the team in practices. \"It is difficult.\"
Porter
Moser, the associate head coach for Saint Louis, did not know Jensen
when they joined the staff in 2007. Moser is the former head coach at
Arkansas-Little Rock and Illinois State. \"He won so much at Utah. He is
a hard worker,\" Moser said of Jensen. \"He has been where these guys
want to go. They look up to him. He came in as a 5 and left as a 3 (at
Utah). He lived and breathed everything coach taught him. He will be a
good coach. He has a huge passion for the game and huge knowledge of
the game.\"
Would Jensen like to be a
head coach one day, perhaps at Utah? \"I have my second thoughts a lot
when I see the ups and downs,\" he said of the profession. \"If the right
opportunity comes along.\"
David Driver covers the Atlantic 10 conference. He can be reached through his Web site at www.davidsdriver.com.