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Ben Howland lands commitment from four-star forward from Kentucky

Aric Holman KHSAA

AP Photo

AP

Ben Howland has landed his second recruit as the head coach of Mississippi State, and the second may actually be more surprising than his first.

Aric Holman, a four-star forward from the Class of 2016, has committed to be a Bulldog and will join the Class of 2015. Holman is a bit of a late-bloomer and initially planned on attending prep school for the 2015-16 season.

“I think (Howland) is going to be good for him,” Holman’s high school coach, Roderick Drake, told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I’ve heard he’s a pretty tough coach, and I think that’s what Aric needs. I think if Aric listens to him, he’ll be a great player for him.”

Holman has been playing on the AAU circuit this spring with Hoop Dreams, a Kentucky-based AAU team, and has impressed. He’s a 6-foot-9 athlete with the kind of length, athleticism and three-point range that tantalizes scouts. He needs to get stronger, which is a major reason that he had initially decided to spend a year at prep school, but he received interest from a number of high profile programs this spring, including Texas, where he was supposed to visit in the coming weeks.

Holman is the No. 70 player in the Class of 2016, according to Rivals. He joins Newman, three-star guard Quinndary Weatherspoon and three-star forward Joseph Strugg in MSU’s 2015 recruiting class. Weatherspoon and Strugg committed to the program when Rick Ray was still head coach.