Nov. 7, 2016 Dave Rice enters his first season as an assistant coach on Eric Musselman's staff at the University of Nevada. In four full seasons as head coach at UNLV, Rice posted a 98-54 record. He is the third winningest coach in UNLV history behind Jerry Tarkanian and Lon Kruger.
In his first two seasons, Rice led the Runnin' Rebels to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2012 and 2013. His first squad went 26-9 and he became the winningest first year head coach at UNLV. His 51 wins after two seasons was most in school history by a second-year head coach. The 2012-13 team posted a 25-10 mark to earn a second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. In year three the Rebels again won 20 games posting a 20-13 overall record.
His first UNLV team was ranked in the top 25 for 13 consecutive weeks and 14 overall, reaching as high as No. 11. Rice's second team was ranked for 11 weeks in a row.
Rice led the Rebels to 10 wins over top 25 teams during his tenure at UNLV including a 90-80 upset of No. 1 North Carolina on Nov. 26, 2011 and No. 3 Arizona on Dec. 23, 2014. In the 2016-17 season the Runnin' Rebels defeated No. 13 Indiana and No. 15 Oregon.
An outstanding recruiter, two of his classes ranked in the top 10 and the third came in at No. 11. The 2012 class was ranked seventh by ESPN and the 2014 group was ranked fifth by Rivals.com. The 2015 class earned the No. 11 ranking.
