The origin dates to Tom Izzo’s first season as Michigan State basketball coach in 1995, when his Spartans weren’t all that great at scoring and he needed to discover ways to get more shots.
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When I told the UNLV people I wanted to write about the new courtside seating area at Lady Rebels games sometimes referred to as Tiffany Row (there is no official connection with the women’s jewelry and specialty retailer), they pointed to three women’s basketball fans seated in the cushy seats near the baseline.
Eric Musselman hugged one player and high-fived another and chest-bumped another. He ran over to the edge of one baseline inside the Lawlor Events Center on Saturday night, one side of his dress shirt untucked, and waved his arms up and down at a raucous student section.
When people imagined how terrific things might be, when they closed their eyes and thought about how UNLV’s basketball team could appear when the defense led to running, which led to easy baskets, which led to the sort of suffocating momentum that brings an opponent to its knees, they visualized these six minutes and 44 seconds.
When it comes to identifying UNLV’s next head basketball coach, those investigating potential candidates should consider a theme based on a series of children’s books.
The lead had climbed to 21 with about seven minutes remaining in the first half against Southern Utah, I mean South Dakota, I mean Air Force, I mean one of the worst Air Force sides in recent memory, and the energy in the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday night continued to rise as it has few times this UNLV basketball season.
Two days after their coach was fired midway through his fourth season, having lost six of their previous eight games and sitting at 0-3 to begin Mountain West play, UNLV basketball players were implored by their new leader to run.
UNLV athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy was answering questions Sunday evening about the firing (with a capital F) of Dave Rice when the future was mentioned, specifically if the school will commence a national search to identify a new full-time basketball coach.
I remember the telephone conversation, the optimism in his voice and determination to build a winning basketball program and excitement about coming home. Dave Rice was talking from his car that afternoon, en route with his family from Provo, Utah, to Las Vegas.
At the same time UNLV called a news conference to announce that Dave Rice had been fired — er, came to a “mutual agreement” with his athletic administration that he would step down as Rebels basketball coach — people were parking their cars and SUVs for “Disney on Ice” at the Thomas & Mack Center.