FARMINGTON HILLS — How was your Christmas vacation?
For coach Rick Palmer and the Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice basketball team, it was hit and miss.
The Warriors — among the Catholic League favorites and the top teams in the state — have had a mixed bag of results throughout the 2025 portion of their schedule. To start things off, Brother Rice opened its campaign with blowout wins over Ferndale, University of Detroit Jesuit, Plymouth, Warren De La Salle and River Rouge.
But then came a rocky stretch. Toledo Central Catholic turned back Brother Rice, 69-62, in its home opener Dec. 19, proving the Warriors human. Brother Rice then fell short to Rockford in a double-overtime thriller on Dec. 22, and suffered a blowout loss to defending MHSAA Division 1 state champion East Lansing, 62-41, on Dec. 28.
One night after the East Lansing loss, the Warriors (6-3 overall) were able to re-group and get a much-needed victory over Grosse Pointe South, 54-44, at the North Farmington Holiday Extravaganza showcase.
“East Lansing’s a really good team. We just didn’t have our best stuff; we didn’t do some tangible things (last night) on a big stage, and we didn’t perform how we wanted to, but tonight was a good bounce-back win. I thought we played better than the score indicated and the margin of that victory,” said Palmer, sounding considerably more upbeat than after the previous showcase game.
In many ways, the Grosse Pointe South game was a mirror image of the East Lansing contest. In both games, Rice played its opponents close throughout the first half, as each contest was a one-point margin at the break.
As if the Warriors learned from the experience against East Lansing the night before, Brother Rice came back to the floor more aggressively against South, breaking the game open with a 21-3 run that stretched over seven minutes of the second half.
In addition, Palmer’s team looked a lot more relaxed against the 5-4 Blue Devils than they did against 8-0 East Lansing, when they played before a capacity crowd the night before at Ferndale High School.
“It’s a little different atmosphere, right?” he said. “We played two games in a row against the two best teams in the state in different gyms. I thought we played really well against Rockford, and really didn’t against East Lansing. If we play our best game and East Lansing doesn’t, we could return the favor down the line.”
Although the Warriors return plenty of players from the team that won a district championship in 2024-25, a couple of underclassmen newcomers are making their mark in the lineup. Freshman point guard Jordan McDaniel has been the team’s leading scorer in every game. He had half of his team’s points in the loss at Central Catholic, and had a game-high 18 against South.
“Jordan’s been ‘the guy’ for us,” Palmer said following the team’s bounce-back win. “I thought tonight he played well. He moved the ball, he passed it. We can get 25 (points) from him, or we can get 17 (points) and 8 (assists). He’s learning that; it’s not been a thing he’s ever had to do. This is the best group of players he’s played with — like any freshman playing varsity — so he’s going to have to adjust. Our guys have got to adjust to him somewhat, too. He’s a really talented player that can create more on his own than anybody we’ve had, but sometimes we’ve got to live a little bit with it, too.”
Even more intriguing is Stefan Banica, a 6-foot-9 sophomore post player who brought his experience on national teams in Spain and Romania when he arrived here to study. He was named the Showcase MVP after getting a double-double (with 16 points) against Grosse Pointe South.
“Stefan had his best game tonight. That was big. We needed it,” Palmer said. “He had a concussion at one point, he had a 105-degree fever another time. He’s homesick; his parents were here, so he’s smiling a little bit more and playing better. We’ve seen flashes of that; we think that there’s a lot more of that than what we’ve seen so far. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement.”
“My teammates helped me, and I helped them all together win the game. It’s not a personal achievement; it’s a whole-team achievement. Without them, I couldn’t achieve nothing,” Banica said. “This win meant very much. This means that we are coming back. The team yesterday was very broken, and now it is reconstructing, and now we are a whole team again after this win.”
Banica is still getting used to the American version of the game, which he describes as “much more physical and much more chaotic.”
“It’s definitely harder playing against older guys, but this is going to make me better, make me involved like a player, after all. It is very good for me and for Jordan; we are both going to get much better if we play against tougher competition. In Europe you have definitely more time (with the ball) so it makes it harder to score points, but overall, I think I like it more here.”
The veteran component is led by senior guard Greg Grays, a University of Detroit Mercy commit. Although he scored in double figures against East Lansing, he sat on the bench in street clothes the following day.
“He got bumped in the knee last night late, and he’s coming off a knee injury, so we didn’t want to risk it,” Palmer said. “We don’t think it’s anything major, but this is not the NBA. He’s only been back for about five practices. If he didn’t get bumped in the knee last night he would have played, but we didn’t feel 100 percent about it this morning. We were OK without him.”
Before getting back into Catholic League play against Detroit Catholic Central on Jan. 9, Brother Rice will take part in one more showcase — the Mike Turner Classic at Albion College on Jan. 3.
“We’re playing Concord, who I think is up to No. 2 (ranking) in Division 4. They’re undefeated. My daughter’s godfather (Marcus Gill) is the coach. We’re the best team they’re going to play. I’ve got to convince our guys (to be up for the challenge) because they’re going to look and think, ‘They’re a Division 4 team,’ but I think they’re a Breslin-bound team in Division 4, and they asked for the game.”
Heading into the new year, Palmer is simply focused on putting the pieces together and making his team more cohesive.
“We’ve got to keep coming together as a group. It’s going to take us some time to get off the ground, and tonight was a good step in the right direction,” he said. “We’ve just got to play more together and be more connected. That comes with time and chemistry.”
