No-frills coach deserves support from entire fan base

Dave Rice was in the car Sunday afternoon, family in tow, headed from Provo, Utah, to Las Vegas and the news conference for which he has prepared the last 19 years.

No frills. No waiting on a private jet from a deep-pockets booster. No fanfare.

Just getting to work as soon as possible.

It is him in a snapshot.

Today should be about what lies ahead and not what came before, about the moment and not the previous week, about who was hired and not who wasn't, about anyone who claims to support UNLV basketball standing solidly behind the coach chosen to replace Lon Kruger and potentially lift the Rebels to heights they haven't known in decades.

There likely hasn't been a coaching search in history that didn't include some level of drama, and the one that played out here since Kruger departed for Oklahoma had more of it than a few seasons worth of "The Sopranos."

But it's finished now. It's done.

It's time to move on.

Jim Livengood as athletic director hired one of UNLV's own, the only finalist who went to two Final Fours with the Rebels and owns a national championship ring.

Somehow, that part was lost on many when a clear line was drawn by supporters of Rice and those of former player Reggie Theus.

Yeah. Rice played here, too.

It's now on him to prove Livengood's gut instinct correct, that the former Brigham Young associate head coach can guide UNLV beyond the NCAA Tournament's first weekend, that he can win the Mountain West Conference titles Kruger didn't, that he can recruit the type of skilled athletes necessary to do both.

This is Rice's challenge and he should be held to it. He needs to win now and win big soon after and win really big over time. He isn't inheriting a situation where a coach was fired and left behind a team with no ability. Rice is a good enough coach and the Rebels have enough returning talent that UNLV should contend for a league title next season.

Reports suggest Rice could begin his staff with one of the best young recruiters nationally in San Diego State assistant Justin Hutson and former UNLV great Stacey Augmon, meaning UNLV could by later this week feature one of the leading offensive minds (Rice) in college basketball and two assistants who are known for their defensive expertise.

Not too shabby a beginning.

The bar for UNLV basketball is always set high, often incredibly so, and no one realizes it more than Rice. The program has enough tradition, the campus enough facilities, the administration and city enough support.

It is the latter that some might question today and yet would be a shame if true. Coaching searches inevitably create hurt feelings and those who supported Theus undoubtedly own some.

But there is a bigger picture. Rice is now in charge and anyone who professes to cherish UNLV basketball should accept and champion it. Those who don't own self-serving agendas. They're not about the program.

"It wasn't just the fact he is a Rhodes scholar that sold me (on Rice)," regent Mark Alden said. "It wasn't just the fact he played at UNLV, that he has proven to be a great coach, that he stepped in and led BYU when (head coach) Dave Rose became ill, that he just helped produce the national Player of the Year in Jimmer Fredette.

"It was all the phone calls, the ones where people actually left their names, the ones from boosters and faculty members who all said he should be hired.

"David isn't coming here to go anywhere else. He wants to spend the next 20 years coaching his alma mater. He feels it is his duty. It is his duty."

UNLV officially welcomes its new basketball coach today and he will step to a microphone and thank those involved in the search and his family and those he is leaving behind in Provo and others who helped chart his course to this moment, including his former coach Jerry Tarkanian.

In everything, no matter how bizarre and underhanded parts of the search became as lines were drawn and those backing Theus in the final hours applied the kind of a full-court press not seen since Tarkanian's teams were running others off the court, he will take the high road.

Then he will attend a reception for fans, shake more hands, smile like he has never smiled, talk about how he intends on taking the program he loves more than any other to greatness.

Then he will begin working tirelessly to do so. That is Dave Rice in a snapshot.

Today should be about him and no one else.

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.