The M.J. Rice Blog: Life at Oak Hill, Recruiting and More

Rice is one of the top shooting guards in the country.

M.J. Rice is an elite shooting guard in the 2022 class who combines elite athleticism, brute strength and scoring ability on all three levels. Last season, Rice was pumping in 25 points, nine rebounds and two assists a game for Durham (N.C.) Academy before tearing his ACL in December. That production has everyone from Duke to Kentucky to Louisville to Texas Tech to Pittsburgh, among many others, all in hot pursuit. Now at Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.), Rice has agreed to give SI All-American exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from his road back to recovery to intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a blog.

Hey, what’s going on world, it’s MJ Rice back at you with another Sports Illustrated blog!

I’m on the Hill (Oak Hill)!

It’s cool down here; different, but cool. I like it.

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It’s a sacrifice, but it forces you to concentrate on what’s important: Books and basketball.

Being here really makes you bond with your teammates more, and I know that’s going to help on the court. The good thing for us is that we already had a bond before we got here, so it’s only growing now.

Everyone here is really getting better, we’re going hard in workouts and you can actually see the improvement every day.

My knee is really good and strong, now it’s just about making sure it stays healthy so I have to focus on icing, massaging and all of that stuff. I have rest it at the right times too, so I’m learning more and more about how to get my knee to be even stronger than it was before.

I already see how it’s going to be, but I’m not going to try and rush it. I’m just trusting the process like everyone keeps telling me.

My recruitment is cool, I hear from the same schools like Florida State, Duke, N.C. State, Oklahoma State and a bunch of other schools.

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I’m just focusing on building the relationships at this point; I know that I’ve got a long way to go with my recruitment so it’s just about getting to know the coaches and seeing who I connect with.

When we’re not working hard on the court me and my teammates just hang out in the dorms and chill out.

If I’m not doing that I’m sleep! Haha!

The school part is cool, but it’s different for me too. It’s all an adjustment, but I’m learning and growing in every way down here.

Music-wise I’m still listening to my R&B! Nothing changed there.

OK, guys that’s another MJ Rice blog in the books reporting live from the Hill!

I’ll check back in later with another one.

See you soon.

Peace.

Don’t forget to follow M.J. Rice:

Twitter: @MJrice_1

Instagram: mjrice2