BYU basketball: Rose promotes assistant Rice to associate head coach

PROVO — After two straight league championships, BYU basketball coach Dave Rose is taking care of his main assistant coach, Dave Rice.

It's a move similar to the one seen at the end of the Cougars' football season, when Bronco Mendenhall named Jaime Hill his defensive coordinator.

Rose named Rice associate head coach at BYU. Titles may not mean much, but they do look good on a resume. And they come with a raise, which pleased Rice, an excellent recruiter and on-the-floor coach.

"I'm really, really excited to be at BYU and be with Coach Rose and be part of a very good staff. I've been excited to be on a staff that's trying to build on a great tradition of basketball," said Rice.

"I'm really appreciative of Coach Rose, who has given me a chance to be at BYU."

Rose hired Rice away from Utah State and credits him for BYU's recent success.

"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."

Rice will continue to coordinate the team's offense and recruiting efforts. In the three years Rice has been coordinating the Cougars' offense, BYU has generated the MWC's top attack for 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 3-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-win seasons and a 72-26 overall record while recording back-to-back outright MWC Championships. The Cougars also have 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).

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