University of Illinois Springfield's basketball teams are building momentum with these Rock Island siblings motivating each other along the way.
Kayla Rice has always been a staunch supporter of her older brother, Jordan.
Kayla wouldn’t hesitate to watch him play, even if it was just an AAU game.
It’s just as true today as it was growing up in Rock Island. Both Kayla and Jordan are now top performers on the University of Illinois Springfield men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Kayla demurred from giving Jordan all the credit, but wasn’t averse to saying she tries to take after his footsteps.
“I love watching him play,” Kayla said. “I watch his game and try to mimic it at times like his pullup jumper. I took that from him in a way. Every time I get done with my game, I’m like, ‘Oh, let me rush and go watch him play and see what he does.’”
“I’ll take the compliment,” Jordan said of the pullup.
Jordan ascends all-time list
The Rock Island High School alums have each made a monstrous impact on their respective teams — and the record books.
Jordan, a graduate student working on a master’s in business administration, ranks second all-time in assists (408) and third all-time in scoring (1,195) and steals (119). He tied the men’s single-game scoring record with 40 points against William Jewell in a Dec. 1 victory at The Recreation and Athletic Center.
“She watches my games and I watch hers,” Jordan said. “She lets me know things that I could be doing better or worse. If I have a bad game, she’s right there texting me like, ‘It’s all good, you’ll get the next one. Don’t worry about it.’”
It’s by no accident that the Prairie Stars men have achieved their best start in the Great Lakes Valley Conference since joining the NCAA Division II league in 2009. In fact, UIS (14-6 overall, 10-2 GLVC) leads the conference standings ahead of visits to Maryville on Thursday, Feb. 5 and McKendree on Saturday, Feb. 7.
Men’s coach Matt Brock, in his seventh season, said they missed Jordan dearly last season, finishing 12-16 overall and 7-13 in the conference. The 5-foot-9 point guard required labrum surgery and took a redshirt after he was all-GLVC first team in the 2023-24 season with 14 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.
“The thing about him is he’s grown so much as a man off the court and a player on the court,” Brock said of Jordan, currently averaging 17.4 points and 5.2 assists per game this winter. “He has matured his offensive game and he’s a smarter defender. But, he’s a better person than he was when he got here when he was 18 years old. I’m really proud off his growth on and off the court.”
Kayla keys rebuild
The same could be said of Kayla.
The 5-7 junior pre-med biology major also happened to set a single-game record against William Jewell on Dec. 1 with 10 steals, besting her own previous mark of nine from freshman year. She has since established new all-time records for most steals (213) and 3-pointers (166), both set against Lincoln University (Mo.) on Jan. 29.
“Our defense, we just play hard,” Kayla said. “That’s what coach (Olivia Birt) always tells us: play hard. When I’m playing defense, I try not to reach and I used to have really bad trouble at reaching, so I try not to reach and just let it come to me. Coach (D’Angelo) Hughes and coach Birt remind me of that every time, but if it wasn’t for my team being in denies and help sides, I wouldn’t be able to get the steals that I did.”
Kayla leads a team that includes nine newcomers and seven freshmen under second-year coach Olivia Birt, formerly Lett. In Birt’s first season, the Stars women mustered just five wins total. This year, UIS (9-11, 6-6 GLVC) is in contention to qualify among the top eight for the GLVC tournament in March, galvanized by Kayla's 15.6 points, 3.2 steals, 2.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Jordan said of Kayla’s success. “She’s always been an athlete. She keeps continuing to mature throughout the years. Obviously she’s breaking a lot of records this year and I think that she’ll continue to build on those records.”
Birt quickly understood how essential Kayla would be to the program’s turnaround and added that Kayla would rather see her teammates carve out new records than herself.
“The way that she can change the game both offensively and defensively has been evident for three years,” Birt said. “It’s crazy that as a junior she’s able to knock down these records and take some of that pressure off senior year, too.”
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Jordan, Kayla Rice spark UIS men's, women's basketball turnaround
Category: General Sports
