Former five-star, Kansas transfer MJ Rice chooses NC State
By SAM LANCE
Former McDonald’s All-American and Kansas transfer guard MJ Rice will play basketball close to home next season. On Wednesday morning, the 6-foot-5, 215-pound guard, announced his commitment to Kevin Keatts and NC State via Instagram.
“Feels good to be home,” Rice said in his Instagram caption.
Rice’s hometown of Henderson (NC) is just about an hour away from NC State’s Raleigh campus.
At Kansas last season, Rice averaged 2.2 points and 1.0 rebounds in a limited 7.5 minutes per game role. He played in 23 total contests and shot 40.8% from the field.
Rice’s year, though, was impacted greatly by health. In the preseason, Rice wasn’t 100%. He then missed the Omaha game early in the year and didn’t travel to the Champions Classic due to an illness. He also had kidney stones before the NC State game in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Because of this, Rice never really seemed to settle into Bill Self’s rotation and system. Rice did have one standout game at KU, posting 19 points and draining two triples against Texas Southern on Nov. 28. The Henderson native tallied the 19 points in just 21 minutes.
NC State recruited MJ Rice hard out of high school, and did so when he entered the transfer portal as well. Now, the Wolfpack have finally grabbed their guy.
Rice joins three other players — Butler transfer guard Jayden Taylor, Arizona State transfer guard DJ Horne and Clemson transfer forward Ben Middlebrooks — in NC State’s 2023 portal class.
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