Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year 2010 – Rayvonte Rice
Not every Illinois basketball player comes to the Illini immediately out of high school. It took a little while for Rayvonte Rice to find his way back to Champaign, but he managed to have a solid career with the Orange and Blue.
Rice emerged as one of the best players in the state of Illinois as a senior at Centennial High School in Champaign. He was sensational for Centennial, putting up 24 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 1.8 assists per game in his final year. He also led the Charges to a 30-1 record that season.
The numbers Rice put up and the success his team had on the court enabled the talented guard to win the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year in 2010. This great honor in the state of Illinois usually means a spot on a power-five DI program. That wasn’t the case with Rice, though.
Rice would end up heading to Drake after high school. He spent two seasons getting buckets with Drake before deciding to take his talents to a better program. Rice would end up transferring to Illinois for his final two years of eligibility.
Illinois wouldn’t make the NCAA tournament in the two seasons Rice was with the program, at no fault of his own. He would average 16.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.6 assists per game in the two-year stint with the Illini.
It was an untraditional path that Rice took to get to Illinois, but he would end up putting up great numbers with the program. This seemed to be a trend with Rice, and that is why he was able to win the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year in 2010.