UNLV’s Rice faces job-defining game at Wyoming

LARAMIE, Wyo. — The most important basketball game in Dave Rice's career as UNLV's head coach and for others around him takes place Saturday in the southeastern part of Wyoming, a place west of Cheyenne that can be found at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287.

Laramie of old was a Wild Wild West stop of gunfights and brothels, but the more modern-day version has been identified by Money Magazine as one of the best cities in which to retire.

Rice isn't ready for such a commitment as the latter, but the wolves back home are howling louder than those inside snowy mountain ranges overlooking these parts.

UNLV hopes to avoid an 0-3 start in an awful Mountain West when it meets Wyoming at 3 p.m. PST inside Arena-Auditorium, where the Rebels for a third consecutive conference game will be favored to win and yet couldn't finish such earlier deals against Fresno State and Colorado State.

It is how those games played out — last week at home against the Bulldogs and then again Wednesday at the Rams — that have many via email and on radio and across social media again questioning Rice's ability to move the Rebels forward and into any semblance of consistent national on-court relevance.

He is in a fifth year and it is assumed the preseason marching orders from above are that UNLV must return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years or the university would move in another direction. Rice's status seems to have been accelerated in the minds of many.

That's what makes today's game — against a Cowboys team that is 8-8 overall and owning a not-so-glowing Ratings Percentage Index of 172 — so significant.

For the head coach and others.

Rice: He is now just 37-31 in Mountain West games and the amount lost within the conference to teams UNLV was favored to beat grows by the week. The Rebels have developed an incredibly bad habit of either being outcoached or playing to the level of competition. Either way, Rice is most responsible for those results that have produced no better conference finish than third during his tenure, including seventh place last season. He's the head coach. It's the reality of the job.

There is no question he is feeling what is mounting pressure. An emotional tongue-lashing of his team after the Colorado State loss this week followed by an angry/frustrated tone with reporters when recounting how the Rebels blew all of a 10-point lead with less than five minutes remaining painted the picture of a coach who understands the importance of turning things around.

Fast. Now. Today.

Rice's boss: If the direct responsibility of results falls on Rice's shoulders, those of ensuring the program is moving in the right direction falls on athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy. The hardest part for an AD is not determining who the best coach is today, but who might be five years from now.

Kunzer-Murphy hasn't experienced the best results of late when offering contract extensions to high-profile UNLV coaches, beginning with Bobby Hauck in football (fired a year after being granted a three-year extension), Tim Chambers in baseball (resigned 18 months after landing a five-year extension following his arrest in connection with driving under the influence) and Rice (now 27-21 overall and 8-12 in conference since being given a two-year extension following the 2013-14 season, a move made after Rice entertained an offer from South Florida and one that had more to do with fearing the loss of a nationally ranked recruiting class than anything.)

You can talk all you want about the excitement head coach Tony Sanchez has brought UNLV football, but this is a basketball school, and the more the university's premier athletic program fails to make any national noise, the less people are going to support it financially via donations or renewing season-tickets or other fundraising efforts.

And that hurts everyone.

And that falls on Kunzer-Murphy, in the final year of her contract.

Rice's players and staff: First, the latter. Scouting. Preparation. Game responsibilities. If your staff is even 5 percent inferior to the opposition, it shows, especially in the sort of close games UNLV lost the last week. Those coaching under Rice need to be better, but it remains to be seen how much improvement can come from the bench.

As for the players, it is a group that wants to win and competes hard most of the time and includes a junior in Ben Carter who arguably cares that UNLV succeeds more than anyone.

But recruiting rankings can't often predict a young man's basketball IQ, and while athleticism might be one advantage the Rebels own most nights, I'm not sure how many of them really know how to play. Repeating the same mental and careless mistakes over and over points to a group that just isn't as good as advertised, primarily above the shoulders.

Fortunately for UNLV, it won't take great to contend in conference this season. Good on most nights will probably be enough given how down the league is. College basketball is crazy this way. The Rebels could win today and then be favored to do so twice next week at home.

Things can change quickly for the better.

They need to for Rice, for his boss, for his staff, for his players.

One conference game of 18 doesn't make a season and absolutely won't determine where in the Mountain West the Rebels ultimately finish.

But for all the reasons that has created the place Dave Rice finds himself today, winning at Wyoming is beyond significant and more than just another game.

It needs to happen.

Fast. Now. Saturday.

His most important game yet as UNLV's head coach.

By miles.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney