Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Rebels basketball:

Dave Rice to stay on as UNLV basketball coach

A year after signing an extension, Rice is getting at least another year to develop his players and get back to the postseason

UNLV Loses to San Diego State

L.E. Baskow

UNLV head coach Dave Rice shouts orders to his players as San Diego State takes the lead during their Mountain West Conference tournament game Thursday, March, 12, 2015.

Updated Monday, March 16, 2015 | 2:31 p.m.

The Rebel Room

Rice Remains at UNLV

Las Vegas Sun sports writers Ray Brewer and Taylor Bern discuss UNLV's decision to stay with men's basketball coach Dave Rice for a fifth season.

After a few days of swirling rumors and speculation regarding his job status, Dave Rice will have at least one more season to get UNLV basketball back on track.

Rice met with Athletic Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy earlier today to lay out his plan for the future, including how he would bounce back next season after finishing seventh in the Mountain West this year with a record of 18-15.

That, along with the possibility of losing current players and incoming recruits, was apparently enough to convince Kunzer-Murphy.

"I met with Coach Rice earlier today and we had a productive and candid discussion," she said in a statement. "He shared his vision for the Runnin’ Rebel program and how he, as its leader, will move it forward. I also had a chance to share with him our expectations as we go from this season into next. Included in those expectations are to reaffirm our status as a leader in the Mountain West and our position as a national program."

UNLV finished third in the conference each of Rice’s first three seasons before falling to seventh this year, the program’s worst finish in Mountain West play and the lowest it has placed in the league standings since 1998 in the Western Athletic Conference.

Overall, Rice is 89-47 and 37-29 in Mountain West play with two NCAA Tournament appearances as the higher seed but no victories.

The Rebels haven't played in the postseason the past two seasons and haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2008.

The 2015-16 season figures to be tournament or bust for Rice, who will have redshirts Jerome Seagers and Ben Carter available, along with several returning players like Pat McCaw and Goodluck Okonoboh plus incoming signee Jalen Poyser and commit Derrick Jones.

The Rebels are also a finalist for Bishop Gorman High center Stephen Zimmerman, a top-10 player in the class of 2015 whose high school coach, Grant Rice, is Dave’s younger brother. It was widely believed, though not a certainty, that a coaching change would ensure Zimmerman went elsewhere.

On the current roster, sophomore Christian Wood and freshman Rashad Vaughn figure to have decisions about whether to put their names in the NBA Draft. It’s unclear whether this affects their decisions.

Wood has been expected for months to make the jump, while Vaughn’s situation is more up in the air — based largely on his lower projected draft status and the knee injury that ended his season Feb. 10. Vaughn tore the meniscus in his left knee after missing much of the offseason recovering from surgery to his right knee.

The injuries and lack of experience with mostly underclassmen showed up in a lot of close losses this season — UNLV was 2-9 in Mountain West games decided by six points or fewer. But that’s something a lot of programs deal with, including many in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Rice’s 71 victories through three years were the second most in program history for a coach’s first three seasons, trailing only Jerry Tarkanian (73).

After taking over for Lon Kruger, who has Oklahoma as a No. 3 seed in the tournament, in 2011, Rice’s win total has dropped each year, going from 26 to 25, 20 and then 18 this season, his first with a roster built entirely of players he and his staff recruited. He’s going to get at least one more chance to get that trending the other way.

"I agree with Coach Rice’s plan and vision for our men’s basketball program," Kunzer-Murphy said. "We are all very excited about the student-athletes we have and are looking forward to next season.”

Kunzer-Murphy agreed to a resignation from football coach Bobby Hauck in November, about a year after giving him a new contract.

Doing something similar in men’s basketball wouldn’t have looked very good. That’s what many boosters wanted to do, however, going so far as to look into raising the $1.2 million for Rice’s buyout.

That’s not going to happen, and following some probably sleepless nights, Rice and his staff can get back to focusing on doing everything they can to win next year.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.

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