Texas Basketball: 3 possible destinations for 5-Star F Ron Holland

More bad news arrived for newly-hired full-time head coach Rodney Terry and the Texas basketball program on the recruiting trail heading into the weekend. Texas lost the commitment of the elite five-star Duncanville forward Ron Holland via an announcement on social media on the afternoon of April 28.

Holland de-committed from Texas on April 28, and it is expected that he will officially request a release from his National Letter of Intent with Texas in the very near future.

So far this offseason, Terry and the Longhorns have lost their only two commitments in the 2023 class. The first recruit that de-committed from the Longhorns’ 2023 class this offseason was the elite five-star Southern California Academy combo guard AJ Johnson, who decided to take his talents to the NBL to play for the Illawarra Hawks in Australia earlier this month.

Johnson’s de-commitment earlier this month left Holland as the lone remaining signee in the Longhorns 2023 class. And it looked like he would be set to arrive on campus for the summer semester in June from a few statements and endorsements Holland gave backing Terry since the Chris Beard-saga first came to fruition in December 2022.

Moreover, Holland mentioned in his post on social media on April 28 that Texas “will still be one of my top schools of choice” after re-opening his recruitment this week.

How likely it is that Terry and the Longhorns get a re-commitment from Holland in the 2023 class isn’t great. Recruits don’t usually wind up in the same place they de-committed from when it’s all said and done for their decision-making process. I would imagine that will be the case with Holland too.

Yet, I won’t rule out the possibility completely of Holland re-committing to Texas in the next couple of months, I just think it’s pretty improbable that it will happen.

Possible destinations for former 5-Star Texas basketball commit Ron Holland

Here’s a look at three possible destinations for Holland following his de-commitment from Texas on April 29.

Arkansas

One of the schools that generated the most buzz in the recruitment behind the scenes of Holland in the last few months is the Arkansas Razorbacks. It sounds like Arkansas stuck with it in this recruitment, making sure to keep lines of communication open in case Holland decided to keep his options open this offseason.

Now that Holland’s recruitment is officially open, I believe that Arkansas could be one of the schools involved in trying to sign him in its 2023 class.

It’s worth noting that Holland is close with a couple of Arkansas’ key players, namely rising sophomore guard Anthony Black. Holland and Black were teammates together at Duncanville High School for a few years.

We saw Black tweet at Holland on April 28 after his de-commitment from Texas saying “talk to me Ron”.

Ole Miss

Another potential SEC landing spot that would make sense for Holland would be with the former Texas head coach Beard and the Ole Miss Rebels. Beard was the head coach that originally recruited Holland to Texas. And given how Beard is still rebuilding the roster almost from scratch for Ole Miss this offseason, Holland would be quite the target to pursue on the recruiting trail to make a big splash in the SEC ahead of the 2023-24 season.

Zach Berry of On3’s OM Spirit mentioned the possibility of Beard pursuing Holland on the recruiting trail once again, this time as the Rebels’ head coach. He mentioned that “one would venture to guess that the Rebels are potentially in the mix”.

G-League

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to see Holland take his talents to the G-League with a squad like G-League Ignite ahead of the 2023-24 season. This is a route that many other elite five-star prospects, such as Holland, have taken in the last few years to play one year of basketball before taking their talents to the NBA.

Another Dallas-area product, five-star Pinkston (TX) shooting guard Dink Pate is one of a few blue-chip prospects that committed to play for the Ignite program in the 2023 class.

There was also a point in time last fall when Holland was considering playing for the G-League Ignite program as an option among his top four or five schools. But he wound up eliminating the Ignite program from consideration in late October 2022, when he narrowed down his top schools to Arkansas, UCLA, and Texas.

It’s not out of the question that he could re-consider the G-League as a realistic option after de-committing from Texas.