BYU assistant says coach upbeat in fight with cancer

By Rob Miech (contact)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

As doctors devise a treatment schedule to battle BYU basketball coach Dave Rose’s pancreatic cancer, Cougars associate head coach Dave Rice has marveled at his boss’s attitude and strength.

“He has an unbelievable perspective with his whole situation,” Rice said Monday. “He’s really determined and upbeat.”

During the first weekend of June, while in Las Vegas visiting family, Rose experienced internal bleeding that led to emergency surgery to remove his spleen and part of his pancreas.

Last week, Rose said he had been diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor cancer, a rare but more-treatable form of pancreatic cancer. It was caught in an early stage.

Rice said over the next few days doctors will come up with a plan to treat the cancer.

“Two percent of the people who get pancreatic cancer have the form he has,” Rice said. “It’s the most treatable and slowest growing … he’s not naïve. He understands this is still a huge challenge he has ahead of him. He’ll attack it like he has anything else.”

Rice, who has assisted Rose for four seasons and was elevated to associate head coach a year ago, brings stability to a stressful time.

A member of UNLV’s 1990 national championship team, Rice, 40, served as a Rebels assistant coach for 11 seasons, under Jerry Tarkanian, Tim Grgurich, Bill Bayno and Charlie Spoonhour.

Three stretches with interim coaches taught Rice plenty about remaining stable.

“While this isn’t an interim situation in the classic sense, when you go through those situations you learn a lot about being there for the players and staff,” Rice said.

“I’m sure, in the best-case scenario, coach will be away a day here or there, and supporting the players and holding those guys up and helping run the program those days he might have to miss are very important.”

That stability starts with Rose, who is 97-34 in four seasons at BYU. When Rice first saw Rose after he returned to Provo, Utah, from the surgery in Las Vegas, Rice was astonished.

“He looked great,” Rice said. “He was a little weak from what he had gone through, but he was energetic. He didn’t want to talk about his situation. He wanted to talk about the program and the guys and this coming season and things we need to do to get better.

“That’s typical … coach looking to try to win the next game.”

According to Rice, talk about him or anyone else running the program on an interim basis until Rose can return full-time is premature.

“It’s up in the air,” Rice said. “We’ll know a lot more in the coming weeks as doctors come up with a treatment schedule and plan. We’re optimistic coach will be able to resume normal duties.”

In a meeting with his staff at his home last Wednesday, Rose said his treatment likely will affect his summer schedule.

“We may not see him quite as much,” Rice said, “but we’re really optimistic about the future.”

He paused a bit when asked about the events of the past week or two.

“I’m just really, really concerned about him as a friend, first and foremost,” Rice said. “We were friends before we were coaching together. I’m just concerned about him and his family. But I’m not surprised at his perspective and how upbeat he is about it. That’s the type of person he is.”