Highly-Ranked Montverde Star Commits to Clemson Women’s Basketball

Clemson Tigers women’s basketball coach Shawn Poppie landed his biggest commitment yet with four-star Holland Harris.

Shawn Poppie, Clemson University Tigers women's basketball coach speaks during a press conference introducing him at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C. Monday, April 2, 2024. / Ken Ruinard / USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

The remake of the Clemson women’s basketball program continued on Friday as four-star recruit Holland Harris announced her commitment to the Tigers.

Commitments are non-binding. The earliest Harris can sign with Clemson is during the early signing period in November.

Harris made the announcement on social media. She posted photos of a visit to Clemson last week.

She is the biggest recruit so far in coach Shawn Poppie’s short tenure at Clemson. Harris is a four-star player and is ranked No. 42 in the Class of 2025 by ESPN.

The 6-1 wing is preparing to play her final season of prep basketball at the prestigious Montverde Academy in Florida.

According to On3’s Talia Goodman, Harris chose the Tigers over Miami, Florida, Stanford and Alabama. Her last official visit was with Clemson. She also told On3.com that her relationship with Poppie made a difference in her commitment, saying that she was intrigued when he made the move to take over the Tigers.

It’s the most recent move for a head coach that has been tasked to turn around a program that made a coaching change, firing Amanda Butler after six seasons, an 81-106 record and one NCAA Tournament berth, which came in her debut season.

Since then, Poppie has leaned hard into the transfer portal to bring in talent while also convincing a few Tigers from last season to pull their name out of the portal and return to Clemson next season.

Clemson now has nine transfers on the roster, three of which followed him from Chattanooga and another, Kinsley Barrington, who brings four years of experience in the WAC, helping the Cal Baptist Lancers win both the WAC regular-season and tournament titles, allowing them to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Poppie is making his second head-coaching stop. The former Virginia Tech assistant, who worked under Kenny Brooks (now at Kentucky), took over the Mocs in 2022 and quickly made them winners.

He led Chattanooga to two Southern Conference Tournament titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances before he was hired to replace Butler.

The program was a consistent NCAA Tournament participant under long-time coach Jim Davis, who took over the program in 1987-88. The Tigers made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances in 18 seasons under Davis, including four Sweet 16 bids and an Elite Eight run in 1991.

Since Davis’ time with the Tigers, the program has made just one NCAA Tournament appearance. That’s the standard that Poppie has been tasked with meeting next season and beyond.