Texas Basketball: 3 players who helped their NBA Draft stock

Sir’Jabari Rice, SG/SF

The most pleasant surprise for the Longhorns among the new additions to the program during the 2022-23 season was the former New Mexico State Aggies grad transfer and fifth-year senior Rice.

The 6-foot-4 and 180-pound Rice proved to be one of the best portal additions in all of college hoops this season. He turned in an All-Big 12-caliber season where he was honored with the Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year and a couple of national Sixth Man of the Year awards.

Rice was an electric source of scoring off the bench for Terry and the Longhorns in the season that was. He averaged a whopping 13 points per game off the bench, four rebounds, two assists, and one steal while shooting 46 percent from the field and 37 percent from deep.

Even more impressive was the fact that Rice’s offensive production only picked up in the latter stages of the season. Rice turned in his best month of the season wearing the Burnt Orange in March, averaging an insane 16 points per game with solid shooting numbers (46 FG%/35 3P%/85 FT%).

Rice proved in March that he could still be a vital source of offense as a secondary playmaker and an almost automatic shot-maker on catch-and-shoot looks. He ranked in the 92nd percentile during the NCAA Tournament, shooting 10-of-18 from deep on catch-and-shoot attempts.

And since one of the biggest areas of improvement for Rice in terms of his NBA Draft profile was consistency as a shooter from long-range, the way he showed out in March should answer a lot of questions.

Rice probably isn’t going to be considered a legitimate second-round prospect in such a deep draft class in 2023. But his breakout 2022-23 campaign for Texas should warrant enough consideration to at least get a shot on a two-way contract and/or with an NBA Summer League team.