Ed. Note: This article is the first in a new series called William and Mary Welcomes. Additional installments will be released as high school athletes announce their commitments to the Tribe.
Let’s give a warm William and Mary Welcome to Tyler Rice, a three-time state champion at Ridge View High School, a 6-foot-tall point guard with the Blazers and a rising senior from Columbia, S.C.
Rice is the first player committed to the 2021 Tribe recruiting class. He announced his decision to attend William and Mary and play for the men’s basketball team last Wednesday, June 24, on Twitter.
Watching his nearly 90-second announcement video, Brendan and I couldn’t be more excited for Rice and his decision. As we’re aware, he received offers from a variety of enticing schools, such as South Carolina Upstate, Penn State and — gasp — Elon, one of our worst basketball rivals in the Colonial Athletic Association. We’re especially glad he didn’t choose Elon, whose Phoenix beat us in the quarterfinals, 68-63. last season.
His full list of offers included William and Mary, Dartmouth, Bucknell, North Carolina A&T, Lehigh and West Chester — besides the three I listed before — so we’re ecstatic that Rice said yes to head coach Dane Fischer and our Tribe.
We’re hopeful that Rice can be the man who’ll take us to the Big Dance two seasons from now, in 2021-22, or any of his future years at the College, and so is he.
“Making the NCAA Tournament appearance, I think that’d be very special to me,” Rice said in a video interview over Zoom. “It’s always been a dream of mine to play in the NCAA Tournament. I think I could definitely accomplish it at William and Mary … I know Coach Fischer and the rest of the coaching staff are going to help prepare us the best they can for it, and hopefully, we can deliver that to the school.”
Rice shares our dream of making it to the NCAA Tournament — which would be a long-awaited first for William and Mary, forcing us to change the name of our blog (or leave it the same) — and he said he believes his leadership skills will make him capable of doing it.
“As far as basketball goes, I think I’m a pretty good leader on the court,” Rice said. “I’m able to lead a group of guys to three state championships.”
During his most recent championship with the Blazers, Rice scored a game-high 23 points for the 69-59 win against Myrtle Beach and took home MVP honors. He also grabbed four rebounds and made four assists in what was his team’s third-consecutive state title. He shot 8-of-15 from the field, including 3-of-6 from three, and 4-of-5 from the line.
His winning profile drew the attention of our William and Mary coaching staff, particularly Fischer and assistant coach Mike Howland. Rice received an offer from us Thursday, March 19, just 11 days after our disastrous quarterfinals loss and six days after the coronavirus (COVID-19) athletics suspension.
Rice may have leadership talent and three state championships to back it up, but he said it was his strong, well-rounded skillset that interested Fischer and his staff.
“But I am somebody who can score, pass, get others involved,” he said, “and I love to play defense, so I think that a combination of those things drew the coaches to me.”
Plus, his academics and his character played a role.
“They were really big on stressing the character part,” Rice said. “They don’t just make you an offer because you play good basketball. I think you have to have, obviously, academics, the character.”
With academics, Rice said that he was interested in sports journalism, but he didn’t any specific area of study in mind yet for William and Mary — fair, because he still has another year until he arrives at our College, and two years until he declares his major.
Even without a particular subject in mind yet, Rice said what drew him to the College was both its academic and athletic excellence.
“What William and Mary had to offer was second to none as far as academics and athletics,” he said.
In terms of his character, Rice described his personality as outgoing.
“I’m a very open person,” he said, smiling. “I love meeting new people. I’m very approachable. I smile a lot, I talk a lot, so I’m very interactive with people who do support me. So I’d say William and Mary is getting a very friendly, loving person.”
Having received his offer in March and made his decision in June, Rice said what drew him to William and Mary during that three-month span was the attentiveness of the coaching staff.
“One thing that singled them out from the rest was their coaches have really prioritized me and making a push for me,” Rice said. “And I felt like they were the school that was trying to get me the most … because the coaching staff really did make me a priority in trying to get me.”
During recruitment, Rice said that he spoke to Howland and Fischer several times, but that eventually all the coaching staff reached out to him positively.
“They were just encouraging me,” Rice said. “They just wanted me to know that they really wanted me there, and that whatever decision I made, that I thought was right for me, was the right decision. But ultimately, they wanted me to come to William and Mary.”
Well before he received an offer and well before he accepted, Rice visited William and Mary twice. He saw legendary four-year forward Nathan Knight (now graduated) play last season, and he quickly formed an impression of the team.
“It’s a very good team,” Rice said. “I know Nathan Knight should be going to the NBA this year. That’s just one person who stood out to me, but I went to a game and I got to see them play, and they support each other. No matter who’s on the court, the bench is gonna stand up. They’re gonna be happy for their guys, and I think that’s the team I wanna be a part of.”
He also formed an impression of Fischer, who was in his first year when Rice visited, is entering his second year next season and will be in his third year by the time that Rice is a freshman at the College.
“He’s very likable,” Rice said of Fischer. “He’s like somebody that you can always come to. That relationship runs deeper than basketball, and I can definitely tell that … He cares for his guys, and it’s definitely noticeable. All his guys love playing for him.”
Rice said it was the familial atmosphere among the players and the coaches that drew him to the Tribe.
Besides making a March Madness appearance — which sounded like music to my ears when he first said it over Zoom — Rice has other goals in mind for when he arrives at our College two years from now.
“Two years from now I just wanna be somebody who’s recognizable on campus, somebody who’s well-connected on campus, that takes the time to get to know a lot of people,” he said. “Make a lot of friends, a lot of relationships, while I’m still being a great academic student and a great player as well. I wanna have a great relationship with my coaches and teammates.”
“But I don’t want to just stop there,” he added. “I want to be connected with the whole campus. I really want to interact and have a fun college experience.”
Plus, he hopes that he can be a part of a welcoming and diverse campus culture, and that he can make a positive impact on our College. With all that’s happening at William and Mary in recent years with Black Lives Matter — including the Lemon Project, which is named for a man enslaved by the College and is currently investigating our College’s historic ties to slavery — Rice said he hoped to find a friendly and fair campus when he arrives.
“Just a culture that’s welcoming, a culture that’s diverse, that could offer me a lot that I can learn from — I think that would be amazing,” Rice said of his ideal William and Mary campus. “Just where I can thrive, no matter the color. Just somewhere I feel comfortable, no matter what color is there.”
In addition to the Lemon Project, William and Mary’s administration just announced last Friday, June 25, in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, that it would create a diverse committee tasked with renaming certain buildings, spaces or structures seen as supportive of either slavery or the Confederacy. Taliaferro Hall, where I was housed freshman year, and Ewell Hall, home of the Music Library, are both named for Confederate officers. Washington, Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler Halls are all named for men who owned slaves — the first three being Founding Fathers.
Our most famous alumnus, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the immortal phrase, “all men are created equal” — who has a guarded statue near Washington Hall — was a slaveowner.
Given all this change at our College, whose iconic Wren Building and President’s House were built by Black enslaved people and whose Wren served as Confederate hospital before it burned down, Rice said he hoped to be a leader on campus as a student-athlete, both on and off the court.
“I would say my best quality is leadership,” Rice said. “I’ve always been very vocal. I’ve always been the type of person who can offer guidance to people, who can give advice. So I think that’s something that I bring to the College, even stepping in as a freshman on the team, even stepping in as a freshman on the campus. I think that I’ll be very involved in making a difference on campus. I think it’s something that I’m very passionate about and I can’t wait to do it.”
With this tide of change happening on and off campus, on and off the court, Rice said he put his faith in having an open dialogue with others.
“Every different culture has something unique to offer, and we can’t grow as people unless we learn new things about each other,” Rice said. “Just having a conversation with people … I think that’s a big step. Just to get people’s thoughts and feelings on it, and then we can all come up with a solution that makes most people happy. But just being to talk about it with each other, being able to feel comfortable talking about it with each other, I think that’s a very big step, and as long we can do that, I think we can find the silver lining in all this and come up with a reasonable solution.”
Before he arrives at William and Mary, whose culture and appearance could change greatly over the course of next year, Rice said he wanted to enjoy his senior year of high school and, hopefully — COVID-19 permitting — play another season of basketball and make a run at a fourth state title.
“I wanna finish out my senior year strong and get to William and Mary, and start working,” Rice said.
For Rice, his journey to Tribe hoops will cap off an interesting athletic career, full of funny twists and turns.
“Growing up, I played both football and basketball,” Rice said, “but I wanted to be a football player when I got older, not a basketball player. I ended up giving football up when I got to high school, so that’s kinda ironic of me.”
And Rice said he’s excited to attend William and Mary two years from now.
“I can’t wait to get there and meet all of you guys, meet all of the fans,” Rice said. “I’m very interactive with the fans and my peers as well. So I can’t wait to get there and get the whole college experience that you guys have to offer.”
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Welcome to the Tribe, Tyler! Congratulations on your decision — very well-made! We’re very excited to see you play two seasons from now, and so are your teammates. See you soon.