Turgeon played with Boyle at Kansas under Larry Brown. Turgeon later crossed paths with Rice as part of the Oregon coaching staff when Turgeon was coming in and Rice was leaving for Northern Colorado after the 1992 season.
Thirty-five miles from the Northern Colorado campus in Greeley, Boyle was a high school coach in Longmont.
“Turg said, ‘You’ve got to go see my best friend,” Rice said.
And Turgeon said the same thing to Boyle.
“‘You have to get to know this guy,’” Boyle recalled. “We struck up a relationship then, and it’s been there ever since.”
At 9 p.m. Wednesday in the NCAA First Four at UD Arena as No. 10 seeds, the two friends will coach against each other for the second time. The first was in an event early in the 2022-23 season in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. But this time it means much more. The winner survives and advances to play No. 7 Florida on Friday.
“When I saw Boise next to our name, I was like, ‘Oh gosh, are you kidding me? I don’t want to be playing against Leon,’” Boyle said.
When Rice saw the same thing, his second thought matched Boyle’s.
“When our names flashed up together, I was like, ‘Well, at least I’ve seen these guys a lot,’” Rice said.
The coaches, who worked together the past two summers with USA Basketball, watch each other’s teams as much as possible, so the scouting reports were easier to formulate than is typical this time of year. And they talk a lot to each other, as much as two or three times a week, about each other’s teams and the challenges they face throughout a long season.
Despite their similarities, their reactions to making the tournament were different. Boyle was hoping a 24-10 record and his team’s late-season eight-game winning streak that ended in the Pac-12 tournament would be enough. And it barely was. Rice, however, expected a better seed at 22-10 as one of six Mountain West Conference teams to make the field.
Both coaches run successful programs and started their current jobs in the 2010-11 season. Boyle is has a .619 winning percentage with 10 20-win seasons, six NCAA bids and two tournament wins. Rice has a .637 winning percentage with 11 20-win seasons and five NCAA bids. Boise is playing in its third straight tournament but still looking for the first win in program history.
The coaches’ relationship grew in those early years because Rice was recruiting one of Boyle’s players to Northern Colorado who ended up playing elsewhere.
“I loved the kid – my coach didn’t,” Rice said. “And he went on to be a great player. Tad still blames me for that.”
But Boyle can’t blame Rice for becoming a college coach. While Boyle was coaching his high school team, he also worked as a financial planner. Rice was making $20,000. Then Rice said he wanted to be a college coach and accepted a job as a restricted-earnings assistant at Oregon.
“I’m thinking this guy’s crazy,” Rice said. “He’s leaving this financial industry that he’s doing really well in to get into coaching. I’m like, ‘Really? You’re going to do this?’ That’s where I was, like, ‘OK, I respect this guy. He’s going to do what he loves.’ And you flash forward to now it worked out pretty good for him.”
They’ve commiserated and celebrated together for 32 years. But on Wednesday night, one will win and advance, one will lose and go home.
“When that ball tips up tomorrow, it’s not about a relationship or friendship,” Boyle said. “It’s about trying to win a game.”
Rice said, “It’s not Tad and me. It’s Boise State versus Colorado. And you just put the blinders on.”
Until the next day when they can be friends again.
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