UNLV officially introduces Chris Beard as head coach

UNLV finally has its head coach in Chris Beard and the delay was due to the Nevada Board of Regents having reservations about the deal for the new Rebels head basketball coach. Beard's contract is a five-year deal and will average approximately $1 million per season.

The regents ultimately passed the deal with a vote of 9-4 with three of the no votes coming from Northern regents in chairman Rick Trachok, Jason Geddes and Robert Davidson, the other to vote no was Allison Stephens who is a UNLV graduate.

The reasoning for voting no were due to private money not being legally binding, a difference in bonuses tied to APR and one seems to be in spite since Nevada head coach Eric Musselman earned a deal of $400,000 per year. That was a number which Trachcok felt that was as much as he could approve for a head basketball coach.

Jason Geddes won’t vote for the contract because for Chris Beard to get post season bonuses UNLV must have a 4-year APR of 930. He wants 940

— Tyler Bischoff (@Bischoff_Tyler) April 8, 2016

Geddes does not seem to know how the APR works because a lot of it is out of the schools control with players transferring or declaring for the pros early. UNLV could have as many as seven players who are not going to be with team next year.

Beard had to sit around during the two-hour meeting waiting for his contract to be approved before he could speak to the media.

"Once we got that out of the way, I just can't tell you how excited I am to hit the ground running," Beard at  the Mendenhall Center. "Looking forward to getting with the players here, looking forward to getting on the phone tonight with recruits and we've got a recruiting period that starts tomorrow so we can get on the road."

He obviously came out positive in the press conference with what he expects to do as the Rebels head coach.

"I don't believe this is a rebuild job. This is a build job," Beard said. ..."I look forward to putting a competitive team on the floor next year."

That is nice but losing half of the team will provide a challenge, but if he can continue to recruit like former head coach Dave Rice then Beard should be able to get UNLV back on track sooner than later.

He also mentioned about how he plans to open the program up to former players.

Chris Beard's message to all former UNLV players: "This is your program." Beard said he'd reach out to all of them.

— Tyler Bischoff (@Bischoff_Tyler) April 8, 2016

As for a staff, Beard has not decided on who he will keep or go after but he will have "one of the best staffs in the conference."

Now that this regent non-sense is out of the way, Beard can do his job as the UNLV basketball coach.