Mar 30, 2023

🏀 MBB: Kansas wing MJ Rice intends to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

Posted Mar 30, 2023 9:18 AM
KU basketball 
KU basketball 

LAWRENCE, Kan.—Another Jayhawk is leaving the nest. Kansas wing MJ Rice intends to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. Rice is set to depart KU after his freshman season with the Jayhawks. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound small forward ended the season averaging 2.2 points per game on 40 percent shooting from the field, while adding 1.0 rebounds per contest. He will have three seasons of playing eligibility left at his next school.

It was an up-and-down season for Rice and one that was impacted due to his availability. He missed the Omaha game in the first week of the season before he didn’t travel to the Champions Classic due to an illness. He came back and played against Southern Utah but suffered from kidney stones before the NC State game in Battle 4 Atlantis and missed that contest. Over a three-game span against Tennessee, Texas Southern and Seton Hall, Rice notched double-digit minutes. After the Seton Hall contest, Rice averaged six minutes per game and played in 17 of KU's next 27 contests.

Rice committed to KU in August of 2021 and signed with the program during the early period. He took official visits to Kansas and Oklahoma State and held offers from seven other program. He was the No. 28-ranked recruit nationally, the No. 8-ranked small forward and the No. 5-ranked player in California in the 247Sports rankings for the class of 2022. Per the 247Sports Composite, Rice was the No. 25-ranked prospect nationally with the same position and state rankings.

Rice is the latest KU player to enter the transfer portal in what is shaping up to be a roster overhaul.

In the first year of the portal windows, the college basketball transfer portal begins March 13 and runs until May 11. Numerous graduate transfers already entered the transfer portal prior to the March 13 opening, but that date kicked off the 60-day window for the rest of the prospective transfers to hop in the portal to examine their options. The one-time transfer rule is still intact, per usual. If a player has not transferred yet, they are immediately eligible. In Martin's case, he is a graduate transfer and is immediately eligible at his next school.