King Rice Named “The Rock” MAAC Coach of the Year
Atlantic City, N.J. (March 10, 2021) – Monmouth University’s King Rice was named the 2020-21 “The Rock” MAAC Coach of the Year, as voted on by the league’s head coaches.
In his tenth season at the helm, Rice led the Hawks to a 12-6 conference record and a share of the MAAC Regular Season Championship. Monmouth heads into the 2021 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s Basketball Championships as the Number 2 overall seed.
This marks the third time in six seasons that Monmouth University Men's Basketball has captured at least a share of the MAAC Regular Season Title.
Under his leadership this season, the Hawks led the MAAC in scoring offense, rebounding offense and three-point field goal percentage. They were also second in the league in turnover margin.
Rice has a trio of seniors who were named to All-MAAC teams this season. Guard Deion Hammond was a unanimous choice for the First Team, while guard George Papas earned Second Team honors and forward Melik Martin was voted to the Third Team.
Now, he looks to lead the Hawks to a quarterfinal win over No. 7 Fairfield College tonight at 7:30 p.m. A win would secure Monmouth a spot in the semifinals and bring Rice one step closer to securing his first MAAC Tournament Championship.
For the previous five seasons before joining the Hawks, Rice was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt under Kevin Stallings, where the Commodores made the NCAA Tournament four of those years out of the Southeastern Conference.
About the 2021 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships:
The MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships return to New Jersey on March 8-13, 2021 at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. To stay up to date on MAAC basketball, visit
http://maacsports.com/basketball and follow
@MAACHoops on Twitter.
About Time Out for Black Lives
Time Out for Black Lives aims to inspire and educate youth, athletes, families and fans. The initiative has an interactive website where coaches and student-athletes from MAAC basketball programs contribute their time and resources to read children’s books in entertaining videos, all focusing on Black culture, history, music and myths. The program comes as part of the MAAC’s
United for Justice campaign that was announced over the summer. For more information, visit
timeoutforblacklives.com.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) celebrates its 40th year of competition during the 2020-21 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.