Rice hires his first assistant

[scottie]

ESPN:

We wrote earlier that the hire of Dave Rice to lead UNLV would immediately help the Rebels in recruiting efforts. Now comes news that the first assistant to join Rice's staff will be Justin Hutson. Not a familiar name to those outside the college basketball sphere, Hutson has been an assistant at San Diego State the past few seasons and per Ryan Greene of the Las Vegas Sun, Hutson is one of the best recruiters on the west coast.

Known as the main recruiter for Kawhi Leonard, Hutson was also responsible for the recruitment of D.J. Gay, Billy White and Chase Tapley. More important, though, is his contributions to SDSU's defense (notes Mark Zeigler of SignOnSanDiego.com). Hutson has served as the squad's defensive 'coordinator' and according to Gay, "He's our defensive guy. Without him, we wouldn't be where we're at today."

It's been noted that Rice's brother is the head coach at the Bishop Gorman but if UNLV wants to make an impression on the trio drawing the attention of seemingly every major DI program (Rosco Allen, Shabazz Muhammad and Ben Carter), Hutson will be extremely instrumental (along with the rest of the coaching staff).

[kccougar]

Sounds like a great move. Dave Rice's BYU offense and Hutson's SDSU defense.

[Coach McGuirk]

ESPN:

We wrote earlier that the hire of Dave Rice to lead UNLV would immediately help the Rebels in recruiting efforts. Now comes news that the first assistant to join Rice's staff will be Justin Hutson. Not a familiar name to those outside the college basketball sphere, Hutson has been an assistant at San Diego State the past few seasons and per Ryan Greene of the Las Vegas Sun, Hutson is one of the best recruiters on the west coast.

Known as the main recruiter for Kawhi Leonard, Hutson was also responsible for the recruitment of D.J. Gay, Billy White and Chase Tapley. More important, though, is his contributions to SDSU's defense (notes Mark Zeigler of SignOnSanDiego.com). Hutson has served as the squad's defensive 'coordinator' and according to Gay, "He's our defensive guy. Without him, we wouldn't be where we're at today."

It's been noted that Rice's brother is the head coach at the Bishop Gorman but if UNLV wants to make an impression on the trio drawing the attention of seemingly every major DI program (Rosco Allen, Shabazz Muhammad and Ben Carter), Hutson will be extremely instrumental (along with the rest of the coaching staff).

Sounds like UNLV made a hell of a hire.

[Flystripper]

Wow Rice pulled the defensive assistant under Fisher. That is impressive considering that this is sort of a lateral hire and who knows how much longer Steve will want to coach before he retires. Impressive that a first time head coach has that much pull. Good for Rice.

I think we will miss this guy more than we currently know.

[Katy Lied]

What the UNLV Players think:

Marshall said he traded text messages with teammates and they all welcomed the news of Rice's hiring.
"It was pretty shocking to everybody what happened with Coach Kruger's departure. I was saddened by it, but I knew he made a business decision," he said. "We all tried to stay positive. Now we're ready to start getting to work."
Rice inherits a team with four returning starters -- Marshall, point guard Oscar Bellfield and forwards Chace Stanback and Quintrell Thomas. The Rebels finished the season 24-9, including two losses to BYU.
Marshall is familiar with the Cougars' up-tempo offense, coordinated by Rice.
"We're going to be doing a lot of runnin

[Blueintheface]

Hiring an assitant coach to be an assitant coach? What is Rice thinking?

[LA Ute]

Hiring an assitant coach to be an assitant coach? What is Rice thinking?

If you're going to play the sarcasm card you need to spell "assistant" right. Amateur.

[Blueintheface]

If you're going to play the sarcasm card you need to spell "assistant" right. Amateur.

You sir, are an assitant.

[LA Ute]

You sir, are an assitant.

Well-played, sir, well-played. I shall return.

[hostile]

Well-played, sir, well-played. I shall return.

you should be happy that he didn't mistype his typo - you could have been an asstaint

[LiveCoug]

Well-played, sir, well-played. I shall return.

You make fun of his spelling and then you hit us with "well-played"? Not once, but twice?

[LA Ute]

You make fun of his spelling and then you hit us with "well-played"? Not once, but twice?

Badly played, sir.

[LiveCoug]

Badly played, sir.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

So with Rice at UNLV is there a chance that BYU gets to set up some series with the Rebels?

[Blueintheface]

So with Rice at UNLV is there a chance that BYU gets to set up some series with the Rebels?

I hope so. It's a natural rivalry if you will and I think BYU needs to maintain their RPI. This means scheduling up in preseason quite a bit to offset the RPI drop in regular season competition.