Millora-Brown to transfer; Kreider to leave for new job
Rice men’s basketball will experience a shakeup in both its player roster and staff next year. According to multiple anonymous sources, freshman center Quentin Millora-Brown has entered the NCAA transfer portal with intent to transfer and assistant coach Chris Kreider has left his position to join Georgia State University as an assistant coach.
After two consecutive years of the Owls losing six players via transfer, Millora-Brown is the first player on the team this offseason to enter the transfer portal. Beginning in October 2018, the NCAA announced that all Division I athletes would be able to transfer to another school without the permission of their current school. Now, a player notifies their current school of their intent to transfer and the school is then required to add the player’s name to a national database, also known as the transfer portal, where other schools’ coaches can contact the player.
Millora-Brown, a Virginia native, started 28 games for Rice this year, providing the Owls with size and a post presence. He averaged 7.2 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting nearly 60% from the field. Millora-Brown’s best game of the season came in November when he scored 21 points against Northwestern State University. The departure of Millora-Brown leaves Rice lacking the height of last year’s rotation, as graduate center Jack Williams has no eligibility remaining. It is currently unclear what school Millora-Brown will transfer to.
Kreider had been with Rice for the past two seasons, joining head coach Scott Pera’s staff when Pera was hired in March 2017. Prior to joining Rice, Kreider served as an assistant at the Virginia Military Institute and has also coached at George Mason University, Georgia Southern University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Kreider will join the staff of new Georgia State head coach Rob Lanier. Georgia State made the NCAA Tournament in three out of the last five seasons.
Kreider is the second assistant coach to leave Pera’s staff since his tenure began. At the end of last season, assistant coach Omar Mance left Rice to become the head coach at Division II Trevecca Nazarene University.
Rice Athletics did not respond to requests for comment on either departure.
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