PROVO — As the Marriott Center crowd of 22,580 roared its approval and the final seconds ticked off the clock near the end of BYU's 74-48 rout of UNLV last Saturday night, coach Dave Rose allowed himself, finally, to exhale and flash a smile. Then he vigorously high-fived the players standing next to him on the bench.
The victory clinched the Cougars' third consecutive 20-win season and marked BYU's 44th straight win at home, tying the school record. Tonight, the Cougars can break the school record for consecutive home wins by beating arch-rival Utah.
Certainly, if there's anyone who can appreciate how far BYU's basketball program has come over the past decade, it's Rose. When he arrived in Provo in 1997 as an assistant under Steve Cleveland, the Cougars had sunk to an all-time low, having posted a 1-25 record the previous season.
Rose was instrumental in bringing respectability, and championship-quality basketball, back to Provo during the Cleveland regime, and he is building upon that groundwork now. He was part of BYU's 44-game homecourt winning streak that came to an end, against Utah, in 2003.
Rose was around when BYU was mired in a 12-game losing streak to the Utes; tonight, the Cougars are looking for their fourth straight win over Utah. In his first season as head coach (2005-06), Rose's team was picked to finish last — it ended up placing second. And now, BYU, which has won eight straight games overall, is closing in on its second consecutive outright MWC championship.
Yet Rose isn't one to stop and smell the roses. He doesn't like to talk about the historical significance of big wins or prolonged streaks. Asked to put perspective on the program's accomplishments over the years in the wake of last Saturday's big triumph, Rose replied, "We've had quite a few sellouts here. The most important thing is, when you do get in an atmosphere like that, you want to play well. We played well the other night."
Then, he deftly turned the conversation to the next game. "We have a big challenge here on Wednesday," he said with caution.
That's typical of Rose, who is continually looking ahead and continually looking for improvement out of his team.
"He's never satisfied," said senior guard Sam Burgess.
Rose has put his own stamp on a basketball program with a storied tradition. He is the third Cougar head coach to win at least 20 games in each of his first three seasons at the helm, along with G. Ott Romney and Roger Reid. But Rose is the first to do it after taking over a program with fewer than 13 wins the previous season. The Cougars were 9-21 in 2004-05, and he earned MWC Coach of the Year honors in each of the next two seasons after that.
Still, Rose isn't in the coaching business for the glory or the glamour, said Cougar assistant Dave Rice.
"He's not one of those guys who does it for any other reason than he loves the game, the competition and the relationship with the players," Rice said.
"I've known him since he was coaching at Dixie (State College) and he hasn't changed at all. He's just the same guy who loves to coach and be with his team and loves to prepare and loves the competition of the games. He cares about the players and he cares about winning.
"That's what makes him genuine to his players — they know he cares about them and about winning," said Rice. "They know he's going to get after them when he needs to and, at the same time, they know he's doing it because he wants them to be the best they can be."
Rice, who has worked under coaches like Jerry Tarkanian, Charlie Spoonhour and Stew Morrill, says Rose possesses a blue-collar approach to the game.
"It's easy for the players to follow his lead because of his work ethic and preparation. He sets the example and leads the way," Rice said. "One word that comes to mind about him is focus. He's really single-minded in terms of a professional standpoint. He's never going to let anything get in the way of letting our team be prepared and playing as well as we can. He's really good at knowing and getting a sense of what makes players tick and how he's able to motivate those guys."
Rose's players respect him on many levels — as a member of a Houston Cougar squad that reached the NCAA championship game in 1983, and as a coach who loves to compete.
"I think he's recruited some pretty good players here," said guard Lee Cummard. "He's a competitor. He's tried to recruit players who want to win.
"There's not a selfish guy on this team that doesn't want anything more than to win the next game. He gets fired up if we aren't playing to our potential because he sees our potential. He has our best interests in his mind.
"One of the best things he does is gets players to play hard and compete," Cummard said. "If you do that, you're going to get better. Every player who has come here that's learned to compete has gotten a lot better."
BYU guard Sam Burgess said Rose knows how to bring out the best in his players.
"When you have a coach that cares that much about us as players and about winning, it just rubs off on us as players," he explained. "He's very good at getting us ready to play. He's been a great motivator.
"He's very easy to play for. He's true to what he says about players — the best will play, no matter who they are or where they come from. He commands the respect that he deserves from the players, and that's just his personality. We all respect him as a coach, and you want to play hard for him."
Rose may be one of the country's most underrated head coaches, but plenty of people have taken notice of Rose's success at BYU.
"Dave Rose has done an outstanding job of establishing BYU as one of the premier programs in the western United States," UCLA coach Ben Howland has said. "He's an outstanding teacher of the game and, equally important, is an outstanding person who demands the most out of his players both on and off the court. He's a credit to the coaching profession, and BYU is very fortunate to have him as its coach."
Back in November, ESPN's Dick Vitale praised Rose and his team during a preseason loss to then-No. 1 North Carolina.
"Dave Rose, a former Houston Cougar, is doing a heck of a job at BYU," Vitale said. "They're going to have another big year this year. What an outstanding basketball team. That club is going to be a factor (in the NCAA tournament).
"When you look at BYU, they're one of the most outstanding teams in America nobody knows about."
But Rose doesn't pay much attention to what others are saying. He remains focused on helping his team improve and on the next opponent. His players have adopted that same approach.
"We're always trying to get better every game," Burgess said. "We want to be one of the elite teams in the country. Coach Rose has got that desire and that vision. I'm sure he'll have the program there sooner or later."
Utah at BYU
8 p.m. MST
TV: The mtn.
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com