Nebraska basketball loses second player to transfer portal

The Nebraska basketball team appears to have entered it’s official rebuilding of the roster for next season. Earlier on Monday, reports surfaced that Ramel Lloyd is set to leave for greener pastures. On Monday afternoon, reports surfaced that Eli Rice is following him out the door.

Unlike Lloyd, Rice actuallty saw some action during his only season with the Nebraska basketball team. Rice appeared in 17 games, though he missed a decent portiom of the end of the campaign with an ankle injury.

Rice did come back for the Huskers’ first round game in the NCAA Tournament but he didn’t see the court, despite the fact that at one point, Fred Hoiberg emptied the bench. It’s possible that Rice had already made his plans to leave known.

It’s also possible of course that both Rice and Lloyd were encouraged to leave, which would make the timing of their departures being so similar a bit more understandable.

Hoiberg has had no shortage of players that have entered the portal since he arrived in Lincoln. It’s well known that some of the players that transferred right after his arrival did so as his encouragement. 

With expectations with the Nebraska basketball program rising, it’s not a stretch to think that the Huskers’ head coach knows what he wants to do with his roster and he now has three open spots.

Nebraska basketball moves on from second player

Like Lloyd, it was originally thought that Rice would return next year and compete for a bigger role. In the 2023-24 season with 4.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists per contest.

Rice, Keisei Tominaga, Josiah Allick, Jarron Coleman and Ramel Lloyd Jr. are all leaving this offseason. NU has two incoming high school commits in Nick Janowski and Braden Frager. The Nebraska basketball team is almost certainly bringing in some transfer players as well while waiting on announcements from CJ Wilcher, Rienk Mast and Juwan Gary.