Dave Rose protects his man
Two straight titles and Dave Rose is taking care of his main assistant coach, a move seen at the end of the season in football when Bronco Mendenhall named Jaime Hill his defensive coordinator.
Rose just named Dave Rice associate head coach at BYU. Titles many not mean much, but they do look good on a resume. And they come with a raise. In fact, it’s a way to get raises for assistant coaches, giving them a title. It happened with Lance Reynolds when Mendenhall was hired and made him the assistant head coach of the program.
This is a deserving role and raise for Rice, an excellent recruiter and a man who knows the game. Rice has settled in to Provo pretty well. A 7-handicap golfer, he enjoys getting out with some of the staff members and is sort of the designated golfer on staff when somebody needs a basketball coach for a scramble tournament, etc.
The official press release from BYU reads as follows:
“Dave has been a big part of the success of our program over the past three years,” Rose said. “He is an outstanding teacher of the game and has always been part of successful programs both as a player and a coach. Dave possesses a complete knowledge of the game and has done a terrific job coordinating our game plans and recruiting efforts.”
An excellent recruiter and on-the-floor coach, Rice will continue to coordinate the team’s offense and recruiting efforts. In the three years Rice has been coordinating the Cougar offense, BYU has generated the Mountain West Conference’s top attack two years and ranked second once. On the national level, the Cougars ranked 21st in assists per game (16.8) and 22nd in scoring margin (+10.5) this past year while also setting a school record for assist-to-field goal ratio at 64.8 percent. In 2006-07, the Cougars ranked among the top 30 in the nation in three-point field-goal percentage (5th, .415), scoring (24th, 78.1 ppg) and scoring margin (25th, +9.0).
In the past three years, BYU has earned three straight 20 wins seasons and a 72-26 overall record while recording back-to-back outright MWC Championships. The Cougars have also appeared in the top-25 polls the last two seasons while making consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
“We have a great group of coaches and players here at BYU, and we’re excited about building on the success we have all worked together to achieve these past three years,” Rice said. “I really enjoy working with Coach Rose. I have the utmost respect for him as a coach and as a leader. I appreciate the opportunities he has provided me to work on his staff.”
Rice, who first joined the BYU coaching staff in May 2005, has 17 years of coaching experience, including 15 seasons at the Division I level at BYU, UNLV and Utah State. As a player, Rice was a member of UNLV’s 1989-90 National Championship and 1990-91 Final Four teams that won a school-record 45 consecutive games. During his career, Rice has been a teammate of or coached 13 players who have gone on to the NBA.
Prior to playing at UNLV, Rice began his college career at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., where he earned All-South Coast Conference honors as a sophomore and was chosen from among more than 13,000 student-athletes as the 1989 California Junior College Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He graduated from Claremont High School. A native of Claremont, Calif., Rice and his wife Mindy have two sons, Travis (10) and Dylan (5).