Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Las Vegas Sun file
UNLV assistant coaches Glynn Cyprien, left, and Dave Rice confer during a team practice in the North Gym Tuesday, October 19, 1999.
Sunday, April 10, 2011 | 2:46 p.m.
KSNV: Rebels' New Mens Basketball Coach
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
KSNV coverage of the new men's basketball coach at UNLV.
Related stories
- Dave Rice to be named UNLV’s next men’s basketball head coach
- Loaded junior class wows coaches at Gorman, waits to see what happens at UNLV
- Former BYU players recall Dave Rice’s impact, believe he’s earned shot at dream job
- UNLV announces official list of finalists for vacant men’s basketball job
- Livengood returns to Las Vegas today; coaching search hitting home stretch
- Lon Kruger says he doesn’t see Oklahoma as a rebuilding project
- Notebook: UNLV AD Jim Livengood’s coaching search heats up in Houston
- UNLV players, recruits react to news of Kruger's departure
- Brewer: Kruger leaving for Oklahoma isn't all that bad
- Jerry Tarkanian: Oklahoma's athletic department has deep pockets
- So, who's the odds-on favorite for Kruger's job?
- A look at Lon Kruger's coaching history at UNLV
- The coaches who have led the Rebels through the decades
Dave Rice seemed destined to be in this position.
As a reserve on the UNLV basketball team in the early 1990s during the program’s consecutive Final Four appearances, Rice occupied the same seat on game days: sandwiched between assistant coaches near the front of the Rebels’ bench.
His playing time was limited to a few minutes at the tail end of blowouts, giving him plenty of opportunities to grasp what would eventually become his craft. He observed and took several mental notes, learning how to manage a team’s diverse personalities and developing several coaching philosophies.
Now, he’ll bring that wisdom back to the same bench at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Rice will be announced Monday as the program’s next head coach, landing the only job he coveted — in Las Vegas at his alma mater — with plans of bringing the Rebels back to their past successes.
Hiring the 42-year-old Rice was a no-brainer decision.
He’s detailed in designing a game plan, will put the ‘Runnin’ back into the program with his up-tempo offense and will be able to sell the area’s best high school players on staying home. He’s the type of guy you would want to grab a beer with after work, speak to your church group or read to a classroom of third-graders.
He’s not flashy, but someone who is sincere and dedicated — the perfect fit for the most high profile athletic job in Las Vegas. His passion for the program will become contagious with locals, recruits and everyone else he comes into contact with.
It’s a passion he was forced to disguise the past seven years. Rice spent 11 years as a UNLV assistant until he wasn’t retained when former coach Lon Kruger was hired in 2004. After one year at Utah State, Rice spent the last six seasons at rival BYU, including the last three as associate head coach.
It was surely painful for Rice to be on the BYU bench for those heated games against UNLV. But it was necessary to give Rice, who was the Cougars’ recruiting coordinator and mastermind behind their high-powered offense, the experience to be qualified to return home.
After all, this is where his heart is.
The Rebels were the toast of college basketball during his playing days, winning the 1990 national title and going undefeated the following year before losing to Duke in the Final Four. Several longtime locals can recall the excitement around town during those glory years. Rice lived it.
And he’s dedicated to bringing those magical times back.
With Rice calling the shots and scheming the attack, BYU’s offense averaged more than 80 points per game this winter. At UNLV, it’s no stretch to assume the Rebels will also be lighting up the scoreboard, similar to Rice’s playing days.
To do this, however, Rice will need to hit the recruiting trail and upgrade the program’s talent. While the current roster has several proven players — seniors-to-be Chace Stanback and Oscar Bellfield, and rising junior Anthony Marshall provide a solid foundation and make the Rebels a league favorite next year — it lacks someone who can take over a game or consistently create his own shot.
Rice, who will be a head coach for the first time, can answer doubters about his recruiting ability this spring. Perennial Nevada power Bishop Gorman High, where his brother, Grant, is the coach, has a loaded junior class with several players who could be program changers.
However, signing a Gorman player isn’t a guarantee just because his brother is the private school’s coach. Rice will have to overcome the same problems as Kruger on the recruiting trail — the Rebels don’t play in a major conference, they won’t be seen much on national television and they’ve only been to the second round of the tournament twice since 1991.
But some of the same problems existed when Rice was a player and the Rebels were still a national power. They are stories he’ll surely share with recruits — moments that helped the former reserve guard become the program’s head coach.
Dave Rice has a recruiting tool that none of the other candidates could match: a UNLV national championship ring. I think he will be a great recruiter and a great coach. I'm thrilled to have a Runnin' Rebel leading our program.
How about Larry Brown?? He has the best resume of all the candidates & has a even better recruiting tool: rings in both leagues. And the most important. . . HIS NAME!!! What recruit knows Rice, Theus, or any of the other names you throw out there.
Larry Brown would not have been a long-term solution. Plus, he had been away from the college game for too long. Good coach. Just not the right fit for UNLV. It's a job that needed to go to a Rebel.
Ray - you say UNLV has only been to the second round of the tournament twice since 1991. In 2007 UNLV went to the third round or Sweet Sixteen unless you meant second weekend.
Congratulations to Coach Dave Rice. I'm thrilled about his hire and excited for next season and many more to come. I predict Dave will be the next Brad Stevens.
@Ray. So basically he's has the experience, but is in-experienced because he coached in the NBA for so long?? If you make it in the NBA, your coaching stocks go down since you haven't coached on that level anymore, but if you sucked @ coaching in the NBA(Kruger,Floyd) & come back, you qualified? I'd rather you used the age discrimination argument than the fact that he wouldn't be able to do it.
Excellent choice. I would have been happy with Theus, too, but Rice is the better choice on a number of levels.
wow, why did dave rose even show up for games at byu, seeing as how rice was the wizard behind the curtain? seems like someone's angling for v.i.p. access to the new coach. i hope rice is a runaway success, i really do, but the prophetic nature of this article is astounding. does that gray's sports almanac from "back to the future II" really exist and is it in mr. brewer's possession? otherwise, he is making some really declarative statements of based wholly on opinion (i realize this is an op-ed of sorts, but come on!) and some huge leaps in faith not necessarily supported by currently provable fact. while i feel like he's within bounds in some parts, the overall specious reasoning contained in this love letter is hard to excuse. i guess it makes for good copy to tell fans that rice is the easter bunny and the tooth fairy all wrapped up in one. well mr. brewer, i'm impressed you went that far out on a limb to praise rice, even if that rhetorical branch is attached to a factual sapling.
Recruiting will be the key, but thank god we won't have to witness the 4 guard line-up anymore. Maybe we'll see a zone when it's necessary to.
Rice knows how good it once was. Hopefully he can start us back down that road.
Smart guy in general. Smart basketball guy in particular. Reaching out to Stacey, if true, demonstrates how he wants to focus on defense by using one of the greatest defensive Rebs in history. Stacey passing down his experience and advice to young Rebs makes me excited.
To put this Reggie thing to bed, one of the best laughs I've had recently was to read a poster who wrote that Reggie had to be picked becuase, in the posters opinion, he was the only one who oculd bring the history and experience of the Final Four to the program. No offense to Reggie and all offense to the poster-that guy needs to learn his Rebel history.