Jamaal Trice is in his Freshman year as a Guard for the UConn Huskies. A basketball was put in his hands before he was age 10. “Basketball ranked pretty high in my family, both my uncle and my pops played.” Jamaal’s uncle, Robin Kirksey played at Loyola-Marymount University from 1991 – 1995, later he played overseas and with the Harlem Globe Trotters. Jamaal is hoping to be even more successful.

His most memorable basketball experiences were last year while playing for prep school Mt. Zion Christian Academy in Durham, North Carolina. “I had a lot of fun playing basketball there. We played every day and every night. We played through everything, really hard, and it made me a much tougher basketball player.” Jamaal became a strong all-around player while at Mt. Zion and that’s when major college basketball programs started calling him but UConn was the first to bring him in for a visit. Jamaal canceled his recruiting visits to other colleges simply saying “nothing gets better than [going to UConn].

Jamaal’s decision to play at UConn was an easy one. “I knew Coach Calhoun was a Hall of Fame coach and that he sent a lot of players to the National Basketball Association (NBA). The players he sent are still playing in the NBA, and have been for a long time.”

The transition that Jamaal has experienced from high school to college is that in college it’s a much more physical game. “Players are a lot stronger on the college level. I love it though. This is my style of basketball, quick, up and down the court.”

Final Four Bound: Jamaal’s response to what it will take for UConn to get to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Final Four this year was, “heart, a lot of heart, and just play hard. I’m looking forward to having fun and getting back to the Final Four again this year, and every year that I’m here.”