Rice ready for clash of reality, perception

Dave Rice had just finished a postgame news conference last week, finished explaining what he thought about his basketball team's 58-50 exhibition win against Washburn, finished saying how UNLV will shoot better and rebound better and practice better and get better.

The first-year head coach then wandered past and offered this self-deprecating assessment: "Who's the guy coaching the offense?"

My response: "The honeymoon is over, Rice. You were awful."

He laughed and nodded in agreement, knowing full well the comment was coated in sarcasm and yet hidden beneath the surface was a reality in which he now exists.

The pep rallies have ended, the handshakes and back slaps are likely tamed for the moment, and good luck finding any compliments about the guy in charge the next time UNLV shoots 2 of 18 on 3-pointers.

Rice and his Rebels begin playing for real against Grand Canyon on Friday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, meaning the line between perception and reality on UNLV basketball in this town will again blend into one.

I can count on one hand those who have said they don't want Rice to succeed, that they don't want the former Rebel to spend years and years here leading his alma mater to conference championships and NCAA Tournaments and deep March runs.

He is, for the most part, beloved across the city.

Which means absolutely nothing if he doesn't win big.

Nor should it, given the program's history and those expectations annually placed upon it.

"I've always said that's a positive, that it speaks to the passion of fans," Rice said. "The other alternative is apathy, and that doesn't help anyone. Myself and my staff can accept criticism. I've just always been one to want to protect our players. I hope when criticism comes, it's because I haven't coached well enough."

Lon Kruger won 161 games at UNLV, including 21 or more in each of his final five seasons. His teams reached four NCAA fields and made the Sweet 16 in 2006-07. Kruger brought stability to a program that had been foundering, and yet there was a feeling near the end that perhaps the Rebels had advanced as far as they would under him.

That the next hire had to be a coach capable of leading UNLV back to a Final Four. Perception. Reality. There is no difference around these parts. The majority of fans still don't realize how incredibly difficult it is and how fortunate a team must be to reach a Final Four.

Nor do they care.

Rice seems to own the ideal personality for such a challenge, meaning he never seems too high after a win or too low following a loss. He has also never sat in the lead chair as he does now, where every defeat, every moment of adversity, every negative detail to touch his team will first bring a glance in his direction.

Winning at UNLV must feel like the greatest thing in the world for a coach. Losing must feel like the loneliest. This is Dave Rice's reality now and one he knew upon accepting the position.

He never will be good enough for some. Short of hanging another national championship banner, his teams never will be accepted as successful by everyone.

"I think he'll do great, regardless of what comes his way," said Rice's wife and fellow UNLV alum, Mindy. "Good press, bad press, all the pressures from the job. He has been preparing for this for 20 years. Everything he has done has led to this moment, to being the coach at UNLV.

"I also think it's good he has myself and (the couple's two sons) to come home to. It mellows him out. It reminds him this is just a job. He's not the head coach at UNLV at home. He's Dad. He still does the dishes and takes the trash out. You bet. We save it all for him."

The pep rallies have ended and the welcome mat has been rolled up, because honeymoons never last forever.

When you are the basketball coach at UNLV, they barely begin.

"I take this job very seriously, and there isn't a day I wake up where I'm not grateful for this opportunity," Rice sad. "I will never take it for granted. It's important we win and do whatever this program is capable of.

"There will be times of adversity. There will be times we don't play well. But to me, the definition of failure is getting knocked down and not getting up. I promise you that whether we're playing with seven scholarship guys like (on Friday) or have a full roster, we will always battle.

"We will always get up."

And then he will go home and take out the trash.

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. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.