Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Dave Rice takes assistant job at Washington

UNLV Battles UNR

L.E. Baskow

UNLV head coach Marvin Menzies chats momentarily with former coach and current UNR assistant coach Dave Rice on the sidelines at their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, February 25, 2017.

Dave Rice's dalliance with the enemy lasted one year.

The former UNLV head coach, who was fired in the middle of the 2015-16 season in move that still elicits debate, is leaving the UNR sideline after one season to take an assistant position under new Washington head coach Mike Hopkins:

Rice has deep ties at UNLV, both as a player on the 1990 national championship team and as the school's head coach from 2011-2016. After he was fired last year, in-state rival UNR came calling, with head coach Eric Musselman adding Rice as his top assistant for the 2016-17 campaign. Seeing a UNLV lifer on the UNR sideline caused some dissonance among Rebels fans, especially given the way the rivalry swung in the Wolf Pack's favor last season. UNR swept the season series from UNLV by a combined score of 198-135, and Rice's new team won the Mountain West while his old team sunk to last place.

Now, after just one season with the Rebels' biggest rival, Rice is heading to the Pac-12, where assistants' salaries consistently outpace their Mountain West counterparts. Rice was making $75,000 per year at UNR, and he received an additional $300,000 from UNLV under the terms of a contract extension signed in 2014. UNLV still owes Rice $300,000 for each of the next two years.

Rice took to Twitter to thank the UNR community:

Rice compiled a 98-54 record at UNLV and made the NCAA tournament twice, earning at-large berths in 2012 and 2013. The Rebels were bounced in the opening round both years.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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