IU basketball lands Myles Rice, Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, out of transfer portal
Mike Woodson made a splash in rebuilding Indiana basketball's roster Saturday.
Washington State transfer guard Myles Rice committed to IU, announcing his decision via Instagram.
Rice, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and first-team All-Pac-12 pick, averaged 14.8 points, 3.8 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game this season. He ranked in the top five in the Pac-12 in assists and steals (1.6).
On3.com ranked him the No. 17-ranked available player in the portal. Rice's addition leaves the Hoosiers with five open scholarships. Woodson and staff are also heavily involved with Stanford guard Kanaan Carlyle (No. 10 player in portal) and Arizona big man Oumar Ballo (No. 2 in portal). Bradley transfer (and Bloomington South grad) Connor Hickman is scheduled to visit on Sunday.
IU has already added five-star forward Bryson Tucker, who played in this month's McDonald's All American game.
IU transfer portal hot board: Priority positions, names to know
A member of the 2021 class out of Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone, Ga., the 6-3 Rice played AAU with an Atlanta Celtics program well known to IU assistant coach Yasir Rosemond, who strongly recruits Georgia, having landed Kaleb Banks and Jakai Newton out of the Atlanta area recently.
Rice, a Columbia, S.C., native, redshirted the 2021-22 season and medically redshirted in 2022-23 while receiving treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
More than a year and a half from his diagnosis, Rice emerged as a leader on a Washington State team with its most wins since 2007-08 and first NCAA tournament appearance since that 2008 season.
"Everything that I went through just allows me to be grateful that I'm here to play the game that I love," Rice told USA TODAY's Jordan Mendoza.
The chemotherapy sessions were every two weeks and lasted five hours until March 2023, when he got to ring the bell. Then on June 1, when he was at a golf course back home in Georgia with his dad, Rice was informed he was in remission. Rice was ecstatic, and to celebrate, he was back in the gym the next day.
Former WSU coach Kyle Smith, who was just hired at Stanford, called Rice the quarterback of the team and added he sees a striking resemblance to a player he coached while an assistant at Saint Mary’s: NBA veteran Patty Mills.
"They have the same qualities," Smith said. "They just believe they belong. They're not afraid to make mistakes, not afraid to fail. And they just keep getting better."
Myles Rice basketball highlights
USA TODAY sports reporter Jordan Mendoza contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball lands Washington State transfer Myles Rice
