Boston College Athletics
Men's Basketball Signs Two Players
May 04, 2005 | Men's Basketball
May 4, 2005
Tyrese Rice, a 6-foot guard from L.C. Bird High School in Chesterfield, Va., has signed a national letter of intent and Tyrelle Blair, a 6-foot-11-inch center who played the last two seasons at Loyola University Chicago, has signed an athletic grant-in-aid award to play basketball at Boston College, according to an announcement by Boston College head coach Al Skinner.
Both players will enroll at BC in September 2005. Rice will begin play during the 2005-06 season, while Blair must sit out the 2005-06 season under NCAA transfer rules.
Rice averaged 27.0 points, 6.2 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game at L.C. Bird High School this past winter. Recently selected as Associated Press Co-Player of the Year in Virginia, Rice also earned Virginia High School Coaches Association AAA All-State honors after guiding the 2004-05 Skyhawks to a school-record 29 wins and their first Central Region title. He completed his career with 2,328 points, including 314 three-point field goals.
Blair averaged 5.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in 30 games at Loyola this past season. He made 23 starts. The Monticello, Fla., resident played his high-school ball at FSU High School in Tallahassee, Fla. He averaged 10.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 9.8 blocked shots per game at FSU High School in 2002-03.
Rice and Blair join forward Evan Neisler (Word of God Christian Academy/Raleigh, N.C.) and Marquez Haynes (Irving (Texas) High School) as newcomers to the basketball program. Haynes and Neisler signed national letters of intent during the early-signing period last November.
Boston College finished the 2004-05 season with a 25-5 mark, including a 13-3 record in the Big East Conference. BC, which tied for the league's regular-season title, earned its fourth NCAA Tournament bid in the last five years.
