By Brooke Rayford

The first attempt to bring back a star alumnus was unsuccessful. For two seasons, Rick Harrigan led Brother Rice’s boys’ basketball team after longtime coach Pat Richardson retired. The Crusaders are taking another shot at a former standout with Bobby Frasor as the new coach.

Frasor graduated from Brother Rice in 2005, leading the Crusaders to a supersectional title. He was a McDonald’s All-American, won all-conference honors three times and all-state twice, and was named Catholic League Player of the Year in 2005.

He played at the University of North Carolina and was part of the Tar Heels’ 2009 national championship team. After playing overseas, he returned to North Carolina as a video coordinator and later went to the University of Alabama-Birmingham as director of basketball operations.

When the Brother Rice position became available, Frasor said knowing the scene, understanding how the Catholic League works and being back home made the job attractive.

Frasor is the second to succeed his coach Richardson, but with him still teaching at Brother Rice, Frasor called it “awesome” to follow Richardson in the job and to “have him as a crutch to lean on … to bounce questions or ideas off of.”

To help Brother Rice rebuild, after finishing 12-18 last season, Frasor hired two other former All-Catholic League players, Vince Greene (Class of 2000) and Matt Sequist (Frasor’s high school teammate).

Frasor said he wants to bring back Brother Rice’s “wild, second-to-none” student section and “to build that back up where kids are excited about basketball here.”