Press Release Summary = Last Week Eli Holman, a 6-10, 225 pound center out of the bayside city of Richmond, California became Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson's third recruit for 2007.
Press Release Body = IU Lands Third Recruit for 2007 By Ed Anderson (Bloomington, Ind.) Nowadays when you think of a player swatting a ball into the San Francisco Bay, you automatically think baseball and Barry Bonds. Well, Hoosier fans, you'll be thinking of somebody else soon after the '07-08 Hoosiers take to the hardwood. Last Week Eli Holman, a 6-10, 225 pound center out of the bayside city of Richmond, California became Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson's third recruit for 2007.
Folks in Teaneck, New Jersey have already had a peek at Holman. He was invited to this past July's Reebok ABCD Camp where he boosted his stock among the high major programs. Playing against some of the top centers in the country, Holman blocked ten shots in one game, averaged over four blocked shots for the entire three-day camp, led the camp in blocked shots, and was named to the second team behind DeAndre Jordan, who IU courted until he committed to Texas A&M.
Holman, who attended Sampson's Elite Camp last month, picked the Hoosiers over an impressive lineup of schools. He had already heard from UConn, Syracuse, New Mexico, Southern Methodist and "the entire Pac 10" before the ABCD Camp. Since then, North Carolina, Virginia, Boston College, Clemson, Miami and Virginia Tech have contacted him.
As a junior last year at Richmond H.S., Holman wowed fans in the Bay Area by averaging a triple double with ten blocked shots, fifteen rebounds and ten points a game. His season ended early, though, and his senior season has been in jeopardy ever since Richmond High School Principal Terri Ishmael suspended him for eighteen months after he pushed a referee who had whistled him for a technical foul during the title game of the Jeremy Jack Invitational on December 3, 2005.
Eighteen months seems like an excessive punishment. Although you can\'t condone aggression towards an official, the suspension, if it holds, effectively eliminates Holman\'s remaining year of high school eligibility, leaving sitting out a year, moving to another school district or attending prep school his only options.
Perhaps recognizing how disproportionate the punishment was to the offense, North Coast Section Commissioner Tom Ehrhorn announced in early January 2006 that an appeals committee had recommended Holman be allowed to petition for reinstatement for his senior season when the committee convenes in the fall. That\'s a good sign. Another good sign is that Holman, who has the core academic requirements and GPA he needs to enroll at IU, but still needs to pass the SAT, has completed an anger-management program.
Make no mistake about it, though, Holman plays basketball with a lot of energy and aggressiveness, and you can be sure Sampson likes the way he channels it into a defensive force that changes the way teams score points. Lonnie Coleman, an assistant basketball coach at Richmond, calls Holman a "Bill Russell-like player who can also score." Russell, of course, swatted a few basketballs in the Bay area for University of San Francisco, which he led to the NCAA championship in 1955 and 1956.
Holman, a southpaw with a good feel for the basket on offense, has great feet and hands. Coleman says he's a "big kid who's still growing." With a wing span of 7'7", a size 19 shoe and hands three times the size of a normal man, that's a frightening prospect for opposing centers and penetrating guards and an absolute delight for the Hoosier Faithful.
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