BYU basketball: Dave Rose says ‘today is the day I’m going to retire’

In a press conference held on the Marriott Center floor Tuesday afternoon, BYU Basketball Head Coach Dave Rose announced officially that he is retiring.

BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe started things off, not by announcing that Rose would retire, but by stating the order of events. He noted that after his remarks, Rose would make remarks, and then answer questions from the media. Holmoe placed special emphasis on the fact that Rose should not be asked questions about the future because, “Today is a day for Dave.” Holmoe also noted Rose’s successes in the Marriott Center, where he totes an impressive 200-27 record in his 14 years as head coach.

Rose stepped to the microphone, clearly emotional, and said, “Today is the day that I’m going to retire.”

“I’m 61 years old and still haven’t worked a day in my life,” Rose continued, stating that it would be the players and the team that he would miss the most.

Rose then began to reference his health, stating that doctors have said that he has been living on “house money” since his pancreatic cancer scare, for the past 10 years. Rose used this as a segue into talking about his three personal coaching pillars — mind, body and soul.

“It’s my coaching soul that has put me here today,” he said. “I always tell everybody you can’t trick how you feel… You know inside how you feel… My coaching soul said it was time. Time to be done.”

Rose joked that between breaking the news to his coaches and players, hosting the press conference, and getting through the BYU Basketball Banquet Tuesday night, whatever tomorrow brings will be better than what today brought. The remarks were clearly hard for Rose to get through and he was trembling and teary-eyed throughout the entirety.

“I was proud of myself, I did really good with the players,” Rose said when he addressed breaking the news to the team. “Never cracked,” he said.

After Rose’s opening remarks, he had his family stand to be recognized and applauded for their input and sacrifices to BYU Basketball over the years. He had his wife Cheryl come up to the podium and speak for a few moments.

“I know that he will leave this job with no regrets because he has given it all that he has,” Cheryl told the audience.

Rose then proceeded to field questions from the media. One of the questions regarded Rose’s advice for whoever his successor may be.

Rose said that while he doesn’t know who his successor will be, he thinks the pool of candidates is wider than some may think.

“I think that 4 out of the last 5 coaches here at BYU were hired without any Division I coaching experience. There’s a large net that’s gotta be thrown out to find the right guy,” he said. “My advice to the next guy is to try and get outside of yourself and accept the people who want to help you and are here without any agenda besides for wanting to help the team and help the guys be successful.”