King Rice Honored

Binghamton High great King Rice has been named the John McLendon National Coach of the Year.  Rice led the Monmouth University men's basketball team to a program record 28 wins, a MAAC regular season title and an NIT bid.  His 28 victories included decisions over USC, UCLA, Notre Dame and Georgetown.

Rice, who went from playing for the Binghamton Patriots to star for the University of North Carolina, received several other honors prior to his national award.  He was named the MAAC Coach of the Year, the ECAC and NABC Coach of the Year as well.

The Hawks led the nation in road wins with 13 and went 11-2 at home.  Monmouth won their conference regular season championship for the first time in 11 years.

Rice was a McDonald's All-American in high school and was inducted into the Greater Binghamton Sports Hall of Fame last April.  He recently signed a multi-year contract extension to stay on as Monmouth's head coach.