I know that this is a basketball-related site, but the closure of Rice has far greater ramifications than a few kids playing college ball and making it to the NBA. Is that how we judge the quality of education now? When was the last time St. John's had a kid stick in the NBA? Does that mean we should close our doors?
As a product of an inner city school myself, the loss of a school like Rice hurts the kids, both playing basketball and not playing, now going there and future students. It is an oasis of learning. Today we see a bad trend in closing too many of these oases. We all lose when such a place closes.
Hard economic times and all of the troubles faced by the Church have truly hindered a great educational source, the parochial school system. It helped a lot of us, athletes and non- athletes, rise above our troubles.
I know the vast majority of the posters on this site understand what I am saying, but to equate a school's meaningfulness to the number of kids that go on to playing college or pro basketball is wrong. We need the Rices of the world to stay open not just for the 12 or so kids on their basketball teams, but for the entire student population.