Five-star NCAA Basketball prospect Ron Holland is now down to three options. Which of them is the best potential landing spot?
Early in the offseason, Ron Holland announced a list of eight options, which included a lot of premier programs. He’s a consensus five-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, ranked in the top 10 overall by 247sportsComposite. The 6’9 power forward is highly skilled, capable of playing at a high level inside and out, and is also a quality defender and rebounder on the other end.
One of the contenders was Kentucky, who was looking to add Holland to its already quality recruiting class. However, the Wildcats surprisingly missed the last cut of contenders, which came out on Friday.
3️⃣ @TiptonEdits pic.twitter.com/h5yhsvxaPl
— _ronhoops (@ron2kholland) October 28, 2022
All three big-name programs could use someone like Holland a year from now. Here’s a closer look at how he’d fit with each finalist.
Arkansas Razorbacks
The Razorbacks have gotten into the five-star business under head coach Eric Musselman, with a trio of them on this roster. None of them are in the frontcourt though, filled with transfers that could have a big impact or be just alright. The Hogs have been after Holland for a while and he would start there as a replacement for Jalen Graham and potentially a great pairing with Trevon Brazile in the frontcourt.
Texas Longhorns
Texas is set to lose multiple forwards after this season, including returning leading scorer Timmy Allen, starting center Christian Bishop and likely five-star freshman Dillon Mitchell as well. Part of the issues last season had to do with a lack of size and scoring production in the frontcourt and Holland would solve that. The Longhorns are also in pursuit of five-star center Baye Fall and pairing him and Holland together would make them instant contenders in 2023-24.
UCLA Bruins
UCLA is an interesting team here because unlike the other two teams in the sweepstakes, they already have power forward commits in the 2023 class. In fact, they have two in Devin Williams and Brandon Williams. Holland could play some undersized five in order to provide playing time for all of them but there’s also a good chance that five-star freshman center Adem Bona will be around a year from now as well.
This isn’t to say that Holland would be squeezed out of playing time if he were to pick the Bruins but the class is already in good shape inside compared to the other two. But if Mick Cronin and the blue blood program wants to take you on, it’s hard to turn that down.