Maybe it's a good thing that Brigham Young is not so much of a heated rival of the University of Hawai'i any more.

Dave Rose, head coach of the BYU basketball team, sure makes it hard to hate the Cougars. Even members of the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team were cheering for Rose a few months ago.

The Rainbow Warriors will host the Cougars tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center. It won't be as much of a renewed rivalry as it is an appreciation of friendship ... and life. Rose will be at the helm of BYU tonight, just five months after he was diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor cancer.

"We're buddies in this business, and we all care for each other," Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. "We sent him our well wishes as soon as we heard, and just glad that he's OK now."

Rose no longer has a spleen and part of his pancreas, but he no longer has the cancerous tumor, either. "My body has responded," he said. "Now I just go through periodic scans and hope it doesn't return."

Rose's initial diagnosis sent shockwaves through the basketball world, in part because he has made contacts throughout. Hawai'i was no exception. Hawai'i assistant coach Jackson Wheeler met Rose through the junior college coaching circuit, and they have been friends for more than 20 years.

Nash has known Rose for the past decade. Nash was a longtime assistant at UH before ascending to head coach; Rose took a similar path at BYU.