Former Virginia Tech guard Rodney Rice is transferring to Maryland men's basketball, it was reported Sunday. The news was first reported by Joe Tipton of On3 Sports.
Rice, a native of Clinton, Maryland, is the first player to announce he will transfer to Maryland this offseason. Noah Batchelor, Janathan Ramote and Kaelum Swanton-Roger all left the program after the season.
Rice entered the portal on March 15 and is ranked No. 27 among transferable players and No. 5 among shooting guards by the 247Sports Composite. He is 6 feet 4 inches tall and has three years of eligibility remaining.
Rice will look to fill the void in Maryland's backcourt left by the departure of star Jameel Young, who missed most of his freshman year with an injury and left the Hokies' program in October. , he will have to rediscover his game.
Overall, Rice entered his junior year and played in a total of eight games in college. In those games, he averaged 7.4 points while playing 20.1 minutes per game. He also shot 33.3% from 3-point range.
Rice, a former four-star prospect out of DeMartha Catholic High School, was ranked as the No. 73 overall prospect in the class. He averaged 18.5 points in three years with his hometown powerhouse club and was named to the Washington Post All-Met first team as a senior (2021-22). He initially chose the Hokies over Louisville, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Maryland and Alabama.
Former DeMartha head coach Mike Jones was an assistant on the University of Maryland staff last season before leaving to become the head coach at Old Dominion.
With the addition of Rice, Maryland has two open scholarships for next season.
