Leon Paul Rice (born November 25, 1963) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach, and the head men's basketball coach at

Boise State University Boise State University (BSU) is a Public university, public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding ...

of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...

. He replaced

Greg Graham Gregory Lawrence Graham (born November 26, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player who played five seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). College career Graham played collegiately for Bob Knight and the Indi ...

as head coach of the Broncos on March 26, 2010. In his first season, Rice led Boise State to the finals of the WAC tournament and to the semifinals of the

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007–08 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI s ...

. He is the first Boise State head coach to win twenty games in two of his first three seasons and has twenty or more wins in nine of his twelve years. In

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

, he guided the Broncos to their first ever at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. In 2015, he led the Broncos to their only Mountain West regular season championship, Boise State's first conference title since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, and was named the MWC coach of the year. On February 13,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, Rice became the winningest head coach in Boise State history with his 214th victory. Previously an assistant coach at Gonzaga for eleven seasons, Rice was newly promoted head coach

Mark Few Mark Norman Few (born December 27, 1962) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Gonzaga University since 1999. He has served on Gonzaga's coaching staff since 1989, and has been a constant on the sidelines through ...

's first outside hire in July

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. He is cited by Few as being instrumental to the Bulldogs' current and past success. According to Few, Rice occasionally created stories about what opposing student sections were saying about Gonzaga star

Adam Morrison Adam John Morrison (born July 19, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. Morrison played for three years at Gonzaga University and was considered to be one of the top college basketball players in 2005–06. He was a finalist ...

in order to pump him up prior to games. On May 5, 2022, Coach Leon Rice was named as an assistant coach for Team USA and helped lead them to the 2022 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship.

Head coaching record

Personal

Born in

Richland, Washington Richland () is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States. It is located in southeastern Washington at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 60,560. Along with the nearby c ...

, Rice graduated from

Columbia Basin College Columbia Basin College (CBC) is a public community college in Pasco, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. The college offers English as a second language and General Educational Development (GED) ...

, a junior college where he played football, followed by

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

in Pullman in 1986 with a degree in physical education. He later earned a master's in athletic administration from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

in Eugene. Rice and his wife, Robin, have three boys together, Brock, Max, and Kade. The eldest, Brock, completed his freshman basketball season at

Northwest Christian University Bushnell University is a private Christian university in Eugene, Oregon. It is historically affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Christian churches and churches of Christ. The institution was renamed from Northwes ...

, where he averaged 5.1 points off the bench for the Bearcats. Max is a Senior, playing for his dad at Boise State. Kade is currently redshirting his freshman year at Boise State.

References

External links

Boise State University athletics
– Leon Rice

– Leon Rice 1963 births Living people American men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Washington (state) Boise State Broncos men's basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Columbia Basin Hawks football players Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball coaches Junior college men's basketball coaches in the United States Northern Colorado Bears men's basketball coaches Oregon Ducks men's basketball coaches People from Richland, Washington {{1960s-US-basketball-bio-stub