Congratulations to Coach Dave Rose on 200 wins

Coach Rose after his 200th win on Saturday
From www.byucougars.com

Coach Dave Rose has accomplished in only 7 1/2 seasons what it took the legendary Coach Stan Watts 12 seasons to do-- lead the BYU basketball team to 200 wins. I love Dave Rose and think he is one of the best possible people for the head coaching job at BYU. He's focused on his players and on making the team better and more resilient each and every day. He's willing to admit mistakes and give credit to opposing players and coaches when it's due, but he's also very passionate and really, really wants to take his team to the top. And so far at least, he has wildly succeeded.

Coach Rose has done amazing things for the BYU basketball program-- he recruited the unknown player of Jimmer Fredette and turned him into a superstar and the national player of the year. He almost landed Jabari Parker, the best high school prospect the country has seen in a long time (and trust me-- he came a lot closer to that goal than most people believe). And he has several other amazing players coming down the pipeline over the next few years, including 3 of the nation's leading high school players at Lone Peak High-- Eric Mika, TJ Haws, and Nick Emery.

But I think the thing that impresses me most about Dave Rose is his battle with cancer. After beating prostate cancer several years ago, my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer in September 2008, about 9 months before Coach Rose was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (in June 2009), so the story really hit home for me, even though I wasn't really a die-hard BYU basketball fan at the time. My dad was in the middle of chemo and radiation and a bunch of other terrible stuff when I heard about Coach Rose's diagnosis, and I immediately felt for him in a way most people weren't able to. But unlike my dad, Coach Rose was lucky-- even though pancreatic cancer in general is almost always fatal, he got a very rare kind that was curable, and he is now cancer-free. If you haven't seen this video shown earlier this season at half time of one of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic games, you need to watch it. 

Coach Rose's story is inspiring and shows where his heart really lies. As much as cancer sucks (trust me, I know first hand), it seems to have really changed Coach Rose for the better and made him an even better coach, husband, and father.

Congratulations, Coach Rose! Hope you make it to 200 more games and beyond.