Sir'Jabari Rice responds to Bob Huggins' claim, praises Texas bench mentality

According to West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, Texas guard Sir’Jabari Rice “talks a lot.” Huggins claimed postgame following a 94-60 loss to the Longhorns on Saturday that Rice shared some words with him during the game, but did not mention what they were.

When Rice was asked about Huggins’s comments, though, he ironically delivered a brief response.

“I was just being competitive,” he said.

Rice has been on a hot streak of late, having now scored double figures in five straight games. He led Texas with 24 points in just 17 minutes off the bench against the Mountaineers. That was part of 47 bench points for the Longhorns, and Rice spoke postgame about the importance of the role the reserves play.

“You’ve gotta be able to step up when your name’s called,” he said. “Obviously, everybody’s not gonna have a good game. The starting five’s not gonna have a good game every single game. So you’ve gotta be able to have a good bench coming off and you’ve gotta be able to support those guys just like they would support us if we were having a bad game.”

Rice has safely settled into the role of sixth man for Texas after transferring from New Mexico State. So far this season, he is second on the team with 11.1 points across 23.7 minutes per game. But the Longhorns also had several other players step up Saturday.

Freshman guard Arterio Morris finished with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Forward Brock Cunningham chipped in just two points, but contributed in other ways with six rebounds, three assists and a steal.

With the win, Texas improved to 20-5 (9-3 Big 12) and held onto its No. 1 spot in the Big 12 standings. Sir’Jabari Rice was nearly perfect, shooting 5-of-6 from the floor (including 4-of-5 on 3-point attempts) and 10-of-10 on his free throws, so he certainly earned the right to talk a lot, as Bob Huggins would say.

Rice and the Longhorns will hope to maintain their spot atop the league standings when they take on Texas Tech on Monday.