Coach Peterson was hospitalized the week before Thanksgiving with a heart attack and longtime assistant coach Jim McGuire’s father died and his wife was hospitalized for a serious illness during the season causing him to miss two road trips.

excerpt from DNJ article:

Quote:...MTSU has won a school-record 43 games, swept the Sun Belt regular-season and tournament titles and clinched its 14th NCAA tournament berth (10th under Peterson) with Sunday’s victory.

Not bad for a man who some thought was on “death’s doorstep” three months before the season started — or so Peterson likes to say.

“I think there were rumors that I was already gone,” he said. “When I got out of the hospital, I had to meet with my team. I sat in a chair to talk to them — I couldn’t stand — and I told them I was not going to hold them back this year.”

Before the season, Peterson said his goal was to better balance priorities of family and baseball while still keeping his goal of winning championships intact.

He kept his promise, and players never thought otherwise.

“We never doubted the man,” senior Nathan Hines said. “The ballfield is where he lives, where he belongs, where he eats, drinks and sleeps. He wouldn’t let anything keep him from this.”

Peterson said his heart condition was no better than the third most-concerning event off the field for the Blue Raiders.

Long-time MTSU assistant coach Jim McGuire’s father died and his wife was hospitalized for a serious illness during the season. McGuire missed two road trips, but his wife returned to good health.

Peterson said it offered two more hurdles for the team to overcome.

“The hardest thing was when Jim’s wife got sick and his father passed away,” Peterson said. “I’m not concerned about myself. Hell, I can suck up heart attacks. But when somebody who’s been with you 20 years loses his dad and his wife goes into intensive care, that changes everything because that was the most important thing.
“We all had to overcome things, and we did. That’s what athletics is all about.”