UNLV head coach Dave Rice is having a great time in recruiting in his first few months on the job. He first landed a verbal commit from DaQuan Cook a few weeks ago, and now Rice has landed shooting guard Katin Reinhardt. Reinhadt is ranked 45th overall by Scout and 43rd overall by Rivals and the key to getting him to change his commitment from USC to UNLV is that Rice said that Reinhardt could have the same freedom that Jimmer Fredette had while Rice was an assistant at BYU:
"He compared me to Jimmer Fredette a lot," Reinhardt said, referring to Rice's former star pupil at BYU. "How he let him play is how he'll let me play. That freedom, being able to do that stuff, that's what I look at. Look where Jimmer got. He went to the NBA as a lottery pick. So if you could get that kind of coach to be behind you 100 percent, that's everything you could ask for."
Being compared to Fredette is huge praise, however we all know coaches 'talk' to get recruits to come to their school. So, take that praise and proceed with caution. Reinhadt choose UNLV over Texas, Baylor, North Carolina State, Gonzaga, Syracuse, West Virginia and the Big East.
Former UNLV legendary head coach Jerry Tarkanian had an influence on Reinhardt's decision:
"I actually was watching some stuff on the (former coach Jerry) Tarkanian days, and after seeing that, I want to actually help get it back to where UNLV is contending with the likes of North Carolina and Duke," he said. "I think we'll have a chance to do that with the team we'll have."
Getting UNLV back to the national scene as they were under Tarkanian would be a tremendous goal and now if UNLV could land local Las Vegas product Shabazz Muhammad to sign with the Rebels then that goal could be come a reality in a few years.
Muhammad is ranked as the top recruit by Scout, Rivals, 247, MaxPreps and was recently upgraded to the top spot by ESPN. ESPN's basketball recruiting analyst Dave Telep talks about how Muhammad climbed to the top spot:
"... the wing went to work. He took up with a strength coach, committed himself to fitness and obsessed about working out. Through the spring, Muhammad stated his case step by step for the top spot through a series of outings that verified all the chatter and bumped him from No. 3 to No. 1."
Don't expect Muhammad to make a decision any time soon since he has not taken any official visits yet. There is a chance for fans to see Muhammad in action as he is part of the Boost Mobile Elite 24 on Aug. 26-27. There is a dunk contest on the 26th with a game being shown on ESPNU on the 27th at 7 p.m. ET.
Follow Mountain West Connection for more news around the clock via twitter, facebook and now google plus.