Rodney Rice, former 4-star DeMatha recruit, transfers to Maryland men’s basketball from Virginia Tech
Rodney Rice, a guard from Clinton in Prince George’s County, confirmed on social media that he will transfer to Maryland men’s basketball after spending his first two seasons at Virginia Tech.
Rice confirmed Sunday a report shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with emojis of a ninja and prayer hands.
Rice, who was listed at 6 feet, 4 inches and 195 pounds on the Hokies roster in 2022-23, joins a Terps program that recently had three players enter the transfer portal. Freshman shooting guard Jahnathan Lamothe, a Baltimore resident and St. Frances graduate, announced his decision Thursday to enter the portal, following sophomore small forward Noah Batchelor and sophomore center Caelum Swanton-Rodger, who entered their names in the portal earlier this month.
On Friday, Batchelor, a former Glenelg Country standout, posted on social media that he was transferring to Buffalo.
Maryland, which underachieved with an overall 16-17 record that culminated in an 87-56 trouncing on March 14 by Wisconsin in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, also bade farewell to point guard Jahmir Young and small forward Donta Scott. Young, an All-Big Ten pick, led the team in points (20.4) and assists (4.2) per game and collected 4.9 rebounds, while Scott, an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection, averaged 11.2 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Rice averaged 7.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in eight appearances for Virginia Tech in a 2022-23 season that was marred by ankle and hand injuries. He stepped away from the program in October and entered the transfer portal earlier this month.
Rice spent most of his high school career at DeMatha in Hyattsville in Prince George’s County, which is less than five miles from the Terps’ campus in College Park. During his senior year, he was named an All-Metro first-team selection by The Washington Post and was rated a four-star recruit before he chose the Hokies over Maryland, Alabama, Georgetown, Louisville and Notre Dame.
Although he converted just 33.3% of his 3-point attempts (13 of 39) at Virginia Tech, Rice would already rank as the Terps’ second most accurate perimeter shooter, trailing only backup senior point guard Jahari Long’s success rate of 35.5% (22 of 62) this past winter.
Maryland ranked 13th out of 14 teams in the Big Ten in 3-point percentage at 28.9% (201 of 696). Freshman small forward Jamie Kaiser Jr., Long and freshman shooting guard DeShawn Harris-Smith ranked first, second and third on the team in total 3-pointers with 30, 22 and 18, respectively.
Kevin Norris joins coaching staff
The school on Monday said it has hired Baltimore native Kevin Norris, who had been an assistant coach at Central Florida for eight years, as an assistant. Norris’ previous coaching stops included Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2008-10), UNC Wilmington (2010-11), Florida Gulf Coast (2011-13) and South California (2013-16).
Norris, who graduated from Lake Clifton, played at Miami from 1995 to 1998. He left as the only player in school history to lead the team in assists in four consecutive years and paced the 1997-98 Hurricanes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1960.
“We are excited to add Kevin to our staff,” coach Kevin Willard said in a statement. “He is a veteran coach who understands how to develop players and is a tenacious recruiter.”
