Kunzer-Murphy goes all-in on Rice

It was at a hotel cafe in Houston four years ago during the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four when I sat opposite Jim Livengood. He was then athletic director at UNLV, and his men’s basketball coach, Lon Kruger, had earlier in the day bolted for the riches of running Oklahoma’s program.

Livengood needed a replacement, someone to perhaps take the Rebels to even greater heights than Kruger managed.

I asked about a list of candidates.

Livengood began with one name, a former UNLV player and then associate head coach at Brigham Young: Dave Rice.

“I thought he was absolutely a guy who could come in right away and recruit really high-level, elite players, and he has done that,” Livengood said Monday. “I knew he had never been a head coach, but he had learned under some really good ones. Dave Rose (at BYU) is a great coach. Stew Morrill (just retired at Utah State) was as good as there is anywhere. David had been prepared for the job by some fine coaches.

“I believe it is the best decision for UNLV to give him another year. Major things can happen in a year, more in basketball than football because of the numbers. Big things can happen. I knew it would take time for David to grow into the role. I was only with him at UNLV for a year and a half, and I blame myself for that. I think I could have helped him with some major decisions. Coaches need a fresh pair of eyes sometimes. Lute Olson always said when we were at Arizona together that when a coach moves over one chair, it’s far different than anyone realizes.”

Rice is on the court more during games than he is sitting, but his chair will remain the same after current athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy announced his return for a fifth season.

In doing so, Kunzer-Murphy played the role of Mike in that final Texas hold-’em showdown with Teddy KGB.

She has gone all-in with Rice.

Whether or not her hand, which eventually could determine her own fate at UNLV, shows a nut straight is now directly on the shoulders of a head coach whose number of wins has decreased annually in each of his four seasons.

Kunzer-Murphy released a statement about meeting with Rice on Monday, stating that it was a candid conversation and that she shared with him her expectations for next year.

Which should begin with four letters: NCAA.

The Rebels have now missed the most important event in college basketball in consecutive seasons, two straight Selection Sundays passing with no hope of hearing their names.

That might be expected at places like UNR and Northwestern.

It should be viewed as unacceptable at UNLV.

“It’s all about the NCAA Tournament,” Livengood said. “You have to be in it. You just have to. I would think UNLV has to get there next year or they would then make a change. Hey, that would all be on Dave. It’s all about getting that number in the left column where it should be and making the NCAAs. But it also seems like he has the right guys coming in and the right guys coming back.”

Seems that way.

But in a program that under Rice has brought much change to its roster each spring, it’s unknown just who will make up the team that must contend in the Mountain West and make the NCAAs in order to avoid this type of discussion next year.

If all pieces fall into place, UNLV will feature an incredible level of talent.

Yes, even more than usual.

The coin had two sides in this debate, those boosters and fans who felt Kunzer-Murphy should make a change and those who believed Rice needed a fifth year to deliver the breakthrough results he has promised. Even if she had gone in another direction, there was no guarantee she either could land or afford some of the names being tossed around as possible replacements.

UNLV doesn’t own a history of paying close to what proven big-time coaches demand, and the process of getting anyone hired into the state university system often includes more red tape than trying to get a bill passed through Congress.

There is also this: I can’t believe Kunzer-Murphy wanted the reaction that would come from certain spots had she extended two main coaches (Bobby Hauck in football and Rice) and fired both in the same year.

Hauck didn’t make it; Rice did.

Whatever her reasons, Kunzer-Murphy has gone all-in on Rice. It is a statement that says she believes he is the best fit, the best choice, the best coach to continue leading UNLV.

So, too, does the man who hired him.

“Often in basketball, schools err in getting rid of someone too quick,” said Livengood, a former chair of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. “When I was at Washington State with Kelvin Sampson, far before he ran into (NCAA) trouble at Indiana, he went 1-17 in conference in his third season and everyone wanted him fired. But we stuck with him and he turned things around the next year, and we eventually got to the NCAAs.

“Now, I know Pullman isn’t Las Vegas. But is it absolutely the right thing to do to give David another year? Yes. They have a much better chance of something good happening a year from now than if they had made a change.”

Kunzer-Murphy pushed all her chips in Monday.

If she gets the same flop Mike did against Teddy KGB, things might work out just fine.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 100.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.