Faced with another huge decision in his career as a student-athlete, Trae Broadnax relied again on a guiding principle for his answer.
“With me, I’m just a really goal-oriented person,” said Broadnax, 24, raised in Savannah since age 5. “Whenever I have a decision to make that requires a little bit of extra thought, I always like to reflect on is this leading me in the direction of my goals.”
When he entered the transfer portal after two standout seasons playing basketball at USC Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C., where he earned his undergraduate degree in political science, Broadnax sought a university with outstanding academics and resources as well as a chance to play major college basketball.
Broadnax drew interest from numerous programs, including LSU, Georgia Southern, Mercer, Charlotte, East Carolina, Ohio, and Murray State, he said. “Stuff like NIL” (compensation for the use of name, image, and likeness) wasn’t something he worried about, he said.
The choice was Rice University in Houston. Broadnax feels lucky the Owls program was interested in him.
“Where I’m at right now, I couldn’t picture myself in a better place,” said Broadnax, a graduate student studying global affairs. “Everything checks the boxes. I love where I’m at. I love the situation I’m in.”
Broadnax is a starting guard for the Owls, and early in his first season already has been selected the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Nov. 25, and an honorable-mention honoree the following week.
Listed at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, Broadnax is averaging 13.6 points and college career highs of 6.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 33.7 minutes per game through 15 contests.
The Owls also have gotten off to a solid start at 11-4, 2-0 in the AAC under new head coach Rob Lanier. It’s even more impressive considering most of the team is new following an 11-21 campaign (5-13 league) in 2023-24.
“We were able to build without having to worry about any of the toxic stuff that kind of inhibits teams a lot,” Broadnax said of the players spending the summer at Rice and getting to know each other.
“We had a good June, a good July,” he said. “We came into the season with not a lot of expectations, obviously, because it was Year 1, but we knew what we had. It’s no surprise to be where we’re at right now. To be honest, we should be a little bit better. That’s just how it is.”
Striving to be better, not complacent, has been characteristic of his long, winding path to Rice, where he has two seasons of eligibility.
He’s the son of longtime Savannah State University men’s basketball coach Horace Broadnax – who started the month of Trae’s fifth birthday in April 2005 – and Tammy Broadnax, principal of DeRenne Middle School. Academics and athletics are prominent in this close family, with younger brother Trent a former multiple-sport standout at Benedictine who played safety at Duke (2021-22), where he is on track to graduate in the spring, Trae said.
Trae’s high school career started at Islands, where he played as a freshman and sophomore. He knew the core group of the Sharks from playing together in AAU, and as a 10th-grader was the leading scorer on a senior-led team in 2016-17 also featuring Justin Cave, Hugh Durham, Justin Cutter and Alex Cabrera.
They went 19-10, 11-3 in rugged Region 3-3A and advanced to the GHSA Class 3A state quarterfinals.
“It was probably the best team in Islands history,” Broadnax recalled. “Those are just fun times. Those guys, we were all close, we were all friends. Basketball’s still fun. I still enjoy it. But it was a lot more pure because you’re playing with guys you grew up with.”
He averaged 20.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.6 steals, earning postseason honors as well as attention from college recruiters. Broadnax also had the option to change schools with an offer from Montverde (Fla.) Academy, a college preparatory boarding school with a national-caliber boys basketball program.
It was a tough decision to leave home and Islands High, but Montverde – with its roster and schedule – would lead him in the direction to his goals.
College plans change
His college choice was what he calls now “a home-run decision” in entering the Naval Academy. He wanted the academics as well as a chance to play as a freshman, even work his way into the rotation.
“That was my mindset,” said Broadnax, who attended the Naval Academy Prep School for the 2019-20 academic year.
It didn’t go according to plan as a freshman in 2020-21 when the season was abbreviated to 18 games due to the COVID pandemic. The team went 15-3, but Broadnax appeared in only two games, playing one minute in each and missing his lone field-goal attempt.
“My first two games, I didn’t even dress out. I was on the side in the Navy uniform on the bench,” recalled Broadnax, noting that with limits on game personnel, he had additional duties.
“Sometimes I had to go mop the floor if there was someone who fell during the game,” he said. “It was crazy.”
He laughs at the memory, which gave a literal definition to mop-up duty for players at the end of the bench.
Broadnax tried to improve his position for playing time the next season, a full season, by staying in Annapolis over the summer and working out. But “the writing was on the wall,” he said, for another year deep on the depth chart.
Consulting with his father, who has vast experience playing (at Georgetown) and coaching college basketball, Trae didn’t want to lose a year of eligibility. He also knew that after his sophomore year, he would be facing a required long-term commitment to serving in the Navy.
Instead, he transferred during the winter break to USC Upstate, where he had to pay his own way during the spring semester. Broadnax practiced as a member of the scout team, as it were, to help the Spartans prepare for games.
“At the same time, the coaches got to see what I was about, not only on the court but in the locker room and stuff like that,” he said. “It was essentially like a tryout.
“It’s definitely a humbling experience, especially where I was coming from. I had a lot of offers and opportunities out of high school. I was (ranked) as high as 110 in the country at one point. It’s very humbling, for sure.”
Betting on himself paid off, as after redshirting that season, he joined USC Upstate on scholarship. He averaged 11.1 points in 32 games (31 starts) in 2022-23 and 14.2 points in starting all 30 games in 2023-24, when he was voted All-Big South Conference second team.
He credits his upbringing for his success along his journey, saying his father instilled a work ethic required “to be successful at anything.” He listed traits as consistency, determination, and “the unrelenting pursuit of what you want.”
“This is a combination of all of those things,” Broadnax said. “It’s not like I want to make it seem like a big grind type of thing. I love what I do. I’m just going to give my best at it in every regard that I can. I think it goes back to the goals. I’m very goal-oriented. From there, it just goes to trying to make it happen.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Maria Lysaker, Rice Athletics and Rice Athletics.
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