Jermaine Guice

Jermaine Edward Guice (born September 2, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player. He played high school basketball at Westerville South High School in Westerville, Ohio, and played college basketball with the Butler Bulldogs, staying for four years and leading the team in scoring for two consecutive seasons. After going undrafted in the 1994 NBA draft, he started his professional career in the Continental Basketball Association. After playing in Portugal and Israel as well as in minor leagues in the United States, Guice moved to France where he was a three-time All-Star selection, MVP in 2005 and won the league title in 2006.

High school career Guice was born in Columbus, Ohio and attended Westerville South High School in nearby Westerville, where he was a multi-sport athlete: he was part of the varsity basketball, soccer (where he played in the defender position) and track teams. In his senior year of high school he earned all-state honors in all three sports. and District III Player of the Year. preferring the Bulldogs to Yale and St. Peter's, the other two programs that showed interest in signing him. and averaged 10.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, ranking fifth on the team in both scoring and rebounding. At the end of the season he was named in the MCC All-Newcomer team.

In his sophomore season Guice entered the starting lineup, and received increased playing time, a team-high 37.3 minutes per game. He missed 7 games due to a broken hand, and finished the season as the team's second best scorer (12.4 points per game) behind senior guard Darin Archbold, and also improved his assist numbers to 2.8 per game, which ranked him second on the team behind Tim Bowen.

With the graduation of Archbold, Guice was named team captain and took up the majority of the scoring load for the Bulldogs, averaging a team-high 13.4 field goal attempts per game, and he led the team in scoring with 17.3 points per game. He also ranked second on the team in assists per game (1.9) and steals per game (1.2), trailing Tim Bowen in both categories. He was named in the All-MCC Tournament team, and was a second-team All-MCC selection. He finished the season as an All-Tournament selection, and is ranked 10th as of 2019. In 2011 he was inducted in the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame.

College statistics

Professional career After his senior season at Butler, Guice was automatically eligible for the 1994 NBA draft, but he was not selected by any franchise. He joined the Indiana Pacers rookie free agent camp in July 1994 and practiced with the team but he was not included in the final roster. He then decided to join the Pittsburgh Piranhas, a Continental Basketball Association team which had drafted him in the fifth round (80th overall) in the 1994 CBA draft. He played 31 games with the team (5 starts), averaging 5.5 points, 1.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 14.1 minutes per game before moving to the Rapid City Thrillers mid-season: with the Thrillers he played 17 regular season games (shooting 42.9% from three) and 1 postseason game.

In 1995 Guice moved to Europe and joined Portuguese team Atlético Clube de Portugal, where he averaged 21.4 points per game before coming back to the United States, joining the Connecticut Pride in the CBA, where he averaged 5 points per game in 4 appearances, and then signed with the Shreveport Storm in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he received limited playing time (8.2 minutes) and averaged 2.2 points per game. He moved to Israel for the 1996–97 season and joined Liga Leumit team Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin, playing two seasons and being named the league MVP in 1997. He played in the Israeli top level in the 1997–98 season, averaging 17.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists. In January 1999 he signed for the La Crosse Bobcats, returning to the CBA, and in 27 games he averaged 8 points, 2.3 rebound and 2.6 assists on 22 minutes per game. At the end of the season Guice won the Pro A title with Le Mans, along with the Semaine des As.

In 2006 Guice was signed by Élan Chalon, where he again had the chance to compete in the ULEB Cup: in the 2007–08 edition he played 12 games with averages of 5.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He retired in 2008 after the end of the 2007–08 LNB Pro A season.