Ron Holland cuts UK from list

An expected outcome just became reality, as Ron Holland won’t be picking the Kentucky Wildcats.

On Friday, the Texas native trimmed his list to three options (via On3), and he’s no considering Kentucky or the NBA G-League. His final three includes the UCLA Bruins, Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Longhorns.

Arkansas looked like the favorite for much of this recruitment, but Texas appears to have jumped into the lead. The Longhorns have picked up recent predictions at 247 Sports and On3, so much that the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine now gives them a 92.1% chance of winning out in this recruitment.

Despite facing an uphill battle in this recruitment, Kentucky was hopeful of winning out in the end, especially after hiring K.T. Turner this offseason as an assistant coach. Turner has deep ties to the state of Texas, but it wasn’t enough for the Wildcats to even make the final three.

Kentucky is still on the verge of a monstrous 2023 signing class, but John Calipari has some work to do in the frontcourt. There’s been recent buzz that 4-star forward Eric Dailey could move up UK’s big board if/when Holland went elsewhere.

On to the next one.