Rice more than ready to become head coach

There was a time when Saia — former interim head coach at Southern California and top assistant at UCLA — was mentioned for every job short of the Worcester YMCA team in Vermont. I’m pretty sure that one went to Larry, Darryl or Darryl.

Rice doesn’t often lead such lists but more and more should be included, as he was this week when Wyoming fired Heath Schroyer. Some stories named Rice the leading candidate. Some named former Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie, but those were followed by Internet jokes about drive-thru liquor stores in Laramie and, well, you know …

Ironic. It was on a return flight from UNLV’s game at Brigham Young on Sunday when I began talking to another reporter about Rice, about the terrific job he has done as associate head coach of the Cougars, about his ability to recruit and teach, about a time coming soon when some athletic director will pick up the telephone and instantly make his program better by placing a call to Provo.

Rice has been an assistant at the Division I level for 17 seasons, sitting on benches at UNLV, Utah State and BYU. He played on UNLV’s national championship team. He was part of the 45-game win streak. He has been ready to run a program and win for some time.

He coordinates BYU’s recruiting and has directed the Mountain West Conference’s best offense four of the past five seasons. The Cougars average a league-best 83.3 points per game this season. They run people out of buildings while Rice calls plays for some kid named Jimmer.

But coaching is more leadership than anything, and the way Rice stepped forward and handled BYU’s program in 2009 when head coach Dave Rose was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer solidified what most already thought: Rice will make a terrific head coach.

I don’t want to see how a guy reacts when everything is going well and one win follows another. I want to see him at his worst and his team’s worst. In times of adversity.

When it arrived for the Cougars in an unimaginable way, Rice never flinched.

I’m just not sure Wyoming is the best fit. It could be. The Cowboys have won. They went to the Sweet 16 under Jim Brandenburg in 1987. They earned 20-win seasons in 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03, won two conference titles and upset Gonzaga to reach the second round of the NCAAs in 2002. They are the 1943 national champions.

They have a passionate fan base when things are going well, and it’s still difficult to keep up at over 7,000 feet when Wyoming has good enough players to push tempo and have you begging for oxygen at halftime.

But there might not be a more important decision Rice makes than where he accepts his first head coaching role. Would the sparse recruiting proximity to players in Wyoming make him pause? Would it make enough financial sense to move his wife and two sons to Laramie and leave such a solid position at BYU?

Is he a better fit at Utah if that program were to make a change? (Yes.) I’m not sure the Utes, if they went in another direction from Jim Boylen, would hire a first-time head coach heading into the Pac-12 because you know there would be a concern about losing the news conference.

It’s a mistake many athletic directors make. They care more about instant reaction than long-term viability. Rice would be a long-term answer.

If you know him, you know he wouldn’t talk about any job publicly, that until BYU is eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, his sole focus remains on the team’s pursuit to play deep into March.

But his time is coming.

“I’ve been really fortunate to work for really good guys and good staffs with good chemistry, so I’ve always been more concerned with where I’ve been,” Rice said. “I really don’t spend a lot of time thinking about becoming a head coach. I’ve always been so caught up in the moment of where I am and what I can do for the program.

“No question, I think every assistant aspires to at some point become a head coach. I’ve been blessed to coach under men who empower their assistants and give them the leeway to do their job. There is no question this is Coach Rose’s program. He makes all the final decisions and establishes the philosophy for the program. It was the same (at UNLV) with Coach Tark. He was in charge but gave his staff the opportunity to grow.”

Dave Rice has done enough growing as an assistant coach. The next step is obvious, be it in Laramie or elsewhere.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday and Thursday on “Monsters of the Midday,” Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him at twitter.com/edgraney.