Rodney Rice was one of Tennessee basketball’s top targets in the transfer portal this summer before committing to USC over the Vols, Arizona and Villanova. Rice received bad news early this week after a fantastic start to the season.
The 6-foot-5 shooting guard suffered a shoulder injury during the Maui Invitational. After Rice missed the last six games due to injury, USC announced Wednesday that Rice was undergoing season-ending shoulder injury.
In six games this season, Rice averaged 20.3 points per game on 41.1% shooting from the field and 38.5% shooting from three-point range. He also added six assists and 3.3 rebounds per game.
Last year at Maryland, Rice averaged 13.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while helping lead the Terps to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016.
More From RTI: Former Tennessee Basketball Star Dalton Knecht Makes Most of G-League Debut
Rice visited Tennessee the weekend of the Orange & White game back in the spring as the Vols looked to land one of the top shooting guards in the transfer portal. At the time, Tennessee had already landed Ja’Kobi Gillespie while missing out on Virginia’s Isaac McKneely which left Rice as Tennessee’s top target out of the portal.
“That’s important to me. I want to win,” Rice told RTI following the visit. “I want to get past where we (Maryland) were this year (Sweet 16). So winning is important.”
Bishop Boswell is Tennessee’s starting shooting guard this season, averaging 5.9 points, four rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game. Abram is averaging 4.5 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists off the bench while Burg is averaging 3.5 points and two assists per game.
Tennessee basketball is off to an 8-3 start to the 2025-26 season with marquee wins over Houston and Louisville as well as losses against Kansas, Syracuse and Illinois.
