Former KU basketball guard MJ Rice chooses transfer destination closer to home

Kansas men’s basketball guard and former five-star freshman MJ Rice is moving closer to home.

The 6-foot-5, 215-pound native of Durham, North Carolina, announced on Instagram Wednesday that he is choosing NC State as his transfer destination. He had entered his name in the transfer portal on March 29.

“Feel good to be home,” Rice wrote Wednesday in a social-media post.

Rice averaged 7.5 minutes per game while playing in 23 of KU’s 36 contests in the 2022-23 season. The guard dealt with multiple ailments in his freshman year, leading to several of the missed games. He averaged 2.2 points per game.

Rice shot 20-for-49 (40.8%) from the field, including 3-for-15 (20%) from beyond the arc.

Regarding Rice’s ailments, the former five-star freshman started the season with back issues, then had kidney stones and COVID-19. Then, in the back half of the season, Rice had back spasms that kept him out of multiple games.

In high school, Rice averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in his senior season at Prolific Prep in Napa, California. He started his high school career at Durham (North Carolina) Academy, then moved to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia in 2020-21 before transferring to Prolific Prep.

Earlier in April, guard Bobby Pettiford transferred to East Carolina, while forward Cam Martin ended up at Boise State.

Last season the Wolfpack (23-11, 12-18) finished sixth in the ACC and lost to Creighton 73-62 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

According to Eric Bossi of 247Sports, Rice should fit in well with NC State: “In making the move to Raleigh to play for (coach Kevin) Keatts, Rice appears to be heading to a system that will fit him a little more. He’ll have some more room to freelance, he has a connection to Keatts dating back to high school and he’s surely going to be looking to show and prove why he was so highly regarded coming out of high school.”