Dave Rice Hired As UNLV Basketball Coach After Larry Brown Overture

After a bizarre head coaching search that included a public reveal of final candidates, a campaign for the job by Larry Brown, and everything short of a Cirque Du Soleil production, the UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball program has a coach: Dave Rice.

The BYU Cougars assistant either really loves the Mountain West Conference, or he's looking to lead the program at which he played his college ball back to the Jerry Tarkanian standard. Probably the latter, as Rice played for the legendary UNLV coach in the early 1990s.

Tarkanian told ESPN that he himself thought Reggie Theus, another former player, would get the job:

I thought for sure they would hire Reggie. Dave is a great person. He's a very intelligent guy, a great person. But I think most of the town thought it was going to be Reggie.    

For more on the UNLV and the coaching search, check out Mountain West Connection and SB Nation's UNLV basketball hub.