NC State’s MJ Rice to Sit out the Remainder of the Season

Prior to the Wolfpack’s road game against Virginia tonight, NC State just sent out a press release stating that Sophomore MJ Rice will sit out the remainder of the season, and that the school will submit a waiver for this season to count as a redshirt season.

Rice was a massive pickup for NC State out of the Transfer Portal this past offseason.

The Kansas transfer played in 23 games for the Jayhawks as a Freshman this past year, averaging 2.2 points in 7.6 minutes per game. ON3 ranked Rice as the #24 overall player nationally in the 2022 recruiting class. They also ranked him as the #2 overall player in the Transfer Portal.

Prior to this season, Rice stepped away from the program for personal reasons, and missed the first 7 games, before joining the Wolfpack against Maryland Eastern-Shore.

Since joining the Pack, Rice hasn’t carved out a significant role for himself, averaging 4.1 points in 8.8 minutes per game. Rice didn’t play in the last two games, and prior to that, he only averaged 5.25 minutes in the previous 4 games. In the last two games he played in, Rice played 6 minutes against UNC and 2 minutes against Louisville.

At this point, I have no concrete information on why Rice is sitting out the remainder of the season.