Dave Rice had hoped to win a Mountain West tournament championship on the Thomas & Mack Center floor at UNLV.
He finally got his title Saturday in that venue, just not the way he imagined.
Rice, an assistant coach at UNR, will take it, though.
He and the Wolf Pack are headed to the NCAA Tournament after holding off Colorado State 79-71 to win conference tournament.
It’s the first time in Mountain West men’s basketball history that the No. 1 seed has beaten the second seed in the tournament. The No. 2 seed had gone 7-0 until this time.