Nearly 33 years after receiving rejection letter from Boise State, Rice sets program wins record
Christmas at the Rice household this past December included a framed trio of rejection letters addressed to Leon Rice from Oregon, Gonzaga and Boise State.
They were a gift from Leon’s wife, Robin Rice, who has been by his side from his early days in coaching to the historic career milestone that came to be Saturday night at ExtraMile Arena.
Irony is rarely this sweet.
The Boise State men’s basketball team defeated UNLV 61-59 in Mountain West play, giving Rice career win No. 214 with the Broncos. He is now the winningest coach in program history, surpassing the 213 wins compiled by Bobby Dye from 1983 to 1995.
Dye spoke to the Idaho Statesman by phone last week from his home in California.
“I think the guy’s just done a great job,” Dye said of Rice. “The one thing he’s understood is he always manages to get himself some very good players, and he gets ‘em to play. I think that’s a huge part of it. He’s done a terrific job, so I’m very happy for him. Records are made to be broken, so good for him.”
Rice matched Dye’s school-record 213 wins Thursday in his 345th game with the Broncos — the exact same number of games it took Dye. Dye coached his final game for the Broncos on March 9, 1995 — a 65-63 loss to Idaho State in the Big Sky Tournament — for his school-record 346th game at the helm.
Nearly 26 years later, Dye’s Boise State wins record finally fell.
“It’s humbling and it’s pretty cool,” Rice said in a postgame Zoom interview. “First of all (the team) drenched me, and then they showed me a video of ... a bunch of former players and guys I’ve been associated with all my career. It was pretty special. And that’s what it’s about. It’s about all those relationships and all those guys I’ve got to coach and all those coaches I’ve got to work with throughout the years. That’s why you do it.”
Rice turned the dozens of rejection letters he received in the infancy of his coaching career into motivation. One coaching job at a time, he found success where initially he’d been turned away.
In his 11th season with the Broncos, Rice is the longest-tenured coach in the Mountain West. Rice’s first season at BSU was its final one in the Western Athletic Conference. Since then, the Broncos have won 11 or more conference games six times in the past 10 seasons — a feat no other Mountain West school can claim.
“A lot of the talks that we have were not just for things on the basketball court but just about life,” Boise State redshirt senior Derrick Alston Jr. said. “I think he’s really just taught me how to be a better man and a better person more than anything on the basketball court. He’s given me the confidence to be able to go out and do the things I can on the court, but he’s made me just such a better man off the court. I’m just so appreciative to him, Mrs. Rice, (sons) Max, Brock, Kade, all his whole family.
“For him building this program up and all the families that we have here, just to be able to make this feel like a home away from home is second to none and it’s all credit to him.”
The rejection letter from Boise State — signed by Dye in blue ink on May 16, 1988 — was the only interaction Rice and Dye ever had. Dye, now in his 80s, still keeps tabs on the Broncos and said he recently watched the first half of their 85-77 win over Colorado State on Jan. 29.
“They’ve really got some talented guys this year,” Dye said. “... I guess I would just say congratulations. I know he’s worked hard at it.”
After one year as a high school coach, Rice began his collegiate career as a graduate assistant coach at Oregon in 1989 while working toward his master’s degree in athletic administration, management and program development. He then spent two seasons as a full-time assistant for the Ducks and was the head assistant at Northern Colorado for three seasons before signing on at Yakima Valley College.
He joined Mark Few’s inaugural staff at Gonzaga in 1999 and spent 11 seasons with the Zags, building a resume that included 11 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including Sweet 16 spots in 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2009.
“One of (Dye’s) only true blunders that I know about was that he didn’t recruit local legend Geoff Goss, because Geoff changed the history at Gonzaga,” Rice said of the Boise High graduate who played for the Zags from 1989 to 1994. “And had Bobby recruited him, Gonzaga wouldn’t be No. 1 in the nation right now. (If not for) a series of events that started with Bobby Dye not recruiting Geoff Goss, I probably wouldn’t be here. ... So there it is, it’s all a big circle.”
Rice’s first season at Boise State was in 2010-11. And even after more than 30 years in the coaching business, those rejection letters have never found their way to the trash. They are now treasured possessions.
“It’s kind of the Bronco way and it’s kind of my mentality and my players’ mentality,” Rice said. “It’s just that, ‘Hey, you get knocked down, you get back up. You get knocked down, you get back up.’ You just keep going and who cares if they keep telling you no. You just keep fighting, and that’s what I had to do to get into coaching. I just kept doing it and kept doing it, so it was kind of motivation for me.”
The Broncos are 16-4 overall and 12-3 in Mountain West play this season, including a program-record 13-game winning streak that ran from Nov. 29, 2020, until a 78-56 loss to Colorado State on Jan. 27. Boise State is second in the league standings and hosts first-place Utah State (14-5, 11-2) in a two-game series next week.
This year’s team may end up being Rice’s most successful yet.
But the Broncos made Rice sweat it out for win No. 214 on Saturday night. UNLV and Boise State swapped the lead seven times in the second half, and the Rebels led 55-50 with just 4:22 to play and were up one, 56-55, with 1:35 to go.
Junior guard Devonaire Doutrive gave the Broncos the lead for good on a left-handed shot in the key with 1:08 left, but the Rebels kept the victory in doubt until the final buzzer.
UNLV’s David Jenkins Jr. nailed a 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining to make it a one-point game, 60-59. The Broncos then turned the ball over on the ensuing inbound play, allowing the Rebels a look at the go-ahead shot.
That’s when Doutrive came through again with a defensive stop of UNLV’s Caleb Grill, who unsuccessfully tried to hoist a shot along the baseline over Doutrive. Grill’s shot was an airball, and Doutrive corralled the board and was immediately fouled with the Broncos in the double bonus and only two-tenths of a second left. Rice said Doutrive was supposed to make the first free throw and miss the second, but it ended up being the other way around.
No matter, the postgame celebration was just as sweet.
“I knew something was up when I walked in (to the locker room), because (student manager) MicGuire Monson had the camera going,” Rice said. “I’m like: ‘Uh oh.’ They had so much water. I can’t believe how much water. I thought they were waterboarding me, not celebrating. It never stopped.
“It was pretty cool, just their emotion and their hugs and what it meant to them, that was pretty special. And to get it done in a game like that. I mean, you’ve gotta remember that’s a storied program that we just swept.”
BOISE ST. 61, UNLV 59
UNLV (8-11, 5-7 MW)
Mbacke Diong 4-8 0-1 8, Wood 0-0 0-0 0, Blake 1-4 0-0 2, Grill 4-11 0-0 11, Hamilton 6-18 0-0 13, Jenkins 7-12 1-3 19, Tillis 0-2 6-6 6, Brown 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-55 7-10 59.
BOISE ST. (16-4, 12-3 MW)
Armus 3-7 2-3 8, Kigab 1-4 3-5 5, Alston 8-16 5-6 27, Dennis 1-8 0-0 3, Shaver 1-6 0-0 2, Akot 2-7 0-1 5, Doutrive 4-6 1-2 9, Rice 0-1 0-0 0, Milner 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-56 11-17 61.
Halftime—UNLV 28-27. 3-Point Goals—UNLV 8-22 (Jenkins 4-6, Grill 3-9, Hamilton 1-6, Blake 0-1), Boise St. 8-21 (Alston 6-8, Akot 1-3, Dennis 1-4, Doutrive 0-1, Kigab 0-1, Rice 0-1, Shaver 0-3). Fouled Out—Tillis, Kigab. Rebounds—UNLV 32 (Tillis 8), Boise St. 32 (Armus 13). Assists—UNLV 11 (Hamilton 4), Boise St. 7 (Armus, Akot 2). Total Fouls—UNLV 20, Boise St. 14.
This story was originally published February 13, 2021 at 11:52 PM.
