Forget flash, focus on facts: Rice best fit to lead Rebels

HOUSTON -- The lobby at the downtown Hilton here Saturday afternoon was full of what college basketball coaches refer to as lounge lizards.

They're not talking about John Calipari and Jim Calhoun.

At least not directly.

It's as much a part of Final Four weekend as the games, the coaches' hotel swirling with rumors about hirings and firings, about who will get which job and what that means for the next one and the one after that, about who's moving up and who's tumbling down coaching ladders across the country.

UNLV and its sudden opening to replace Lon Kruger was one of the popular topics, and the consensus among those chattering was a strong one: More and more, it appears Dave Rice is close to returning to his alma mater as head basketball coach.

If that happens, the Rebels couldn't make a better choice.

He is the right one.

More important, Rice is the best one for UNLV in 2011.

Several blocks away not an hour earlier, UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood sat in his own hotel's lounge and spoke for the first time extensively about having to replace Kruger, who on Friday accepted a lucrative offer from Oklahoma.

"We have to move forward, making sure Lon knows how much he was appreciated," Livengood said. "But this isn't about me or Lon or the next coach. This is about UNLV, and that means moving on. It doesn't have to be done today or tomorrow but in a timely fashion. We need it for stability for Las Vegas, and our players deserve it."

Livengood said he had discussed several candidates with people in Las Vegas and throughout his profession the previous 24 hours and that if all things are equal, naming a coach with ties to the program and its championship history is important at this particular time.

Rice has those ties and much more.

His resume wouldn't include head-coaching experience, but given his duties as associate head coach at Brigham Young the past three years and his time there since 2005, his ability to lead the program in terrible days of adversity as head coach Dave Rose faced a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, the fact he has coordinated the nation's best running offense and also led BYU's recruiting efforts, and his years working under such respected names as Rose and Stew Morrill, Rice is prepared and qualified to be UNLV's next coach.

No one runs better after makes than BYU. Rice would bring an up-tempo style countless teams say they feature but don't.

Others want the job. Plenty of others. Other former players such as Reggie Theus. They should want it. The position should be coveted.

But this isn't about winning a news conference and hiring a coach based on fond memories of past glory.

Forget flash. Focus on facts.

It's about today and tomorrow.

It's more about five years from now.

Most hires come with question marks, and it's true that until you have sat in the chair of a Division I head coach at a program where excellence is expected, you can't fully comprehend the pressures of the job.

But you have to sit in it at some point.

Rice is 42. He is ready.

He is young and energetic and considered one of if not the nation's top assistant coach, someone with extensive contacts at the prep and college levels in Las Vegas and nationally who would be able to assemble a staff of other young, energetic recruiters, the kind UNLV has needed for some time.

Money will play a part. It has to for any program within a university system bleeding profusely from a budget crisis.

But dollars can't completely dictate the hire. It's too important a move.

"We're not going to do this on the cheap," Livengood said. "We can't. If we did, we might as well fold up the tents. Las Vegas and UNLV and our basketball program deserve better. At the same time, there were just things Oklahoma did for Lon (financially) that we couldn't do.

"I feel an affinity to listen to everyone on this, but I don't feel an affinity to say, 'Yes, we will do it your way because of what you in turn can do for us.' If that's the case, I'm not the right guy for this job.

"I will involve (UNLV president Neal Smatresk) in the entire process. I think that's very important. But at the end of the day, this has to be someone I am comfortable with. Right now, it's important not to totally lock into one person. That would be unfair to the process. But time also doesn't allow for a long, drawn-out (search)."

The feeling in that coaching lounge and around this Final Four on Saturday is that it ultimately will end with Dave Rice as UNLV's coach.

If so, bravo.

He is the best choice.

And this is the right time.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.