Former Spartan Holloman Opens Up About Challenging Year at Moneyball
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HOLT, Mich. -- The man they call "Jiggy" didn't even get halfway down the steps in Holt High School's gymnasium before fans began stopping him, asking for photos and autographs.
Tre Holloman, who just wrapped up some time with the Orlando Magic in the NBA Summer League, showed back up on Tuesday night at the Moneyball Pro-Am with a much different energy around him than the last time Michigan State fans had really seen him.
Holloman's Move to NC State
Holloman was supposed to be a big part of the Spartans' roster last season. Nobody sensed any disloyalty to MSU after the 2024-25 season, when he pushed two Michigan players off the center-court logo during the Spartans' senior night tradition and then had a pretty emotional reaction to Michigan State's Elite Eight loss to Auburn. Despite that and a starting spot waiting for him, Holloman hit the portal and wound up at NC State and stunned everyone.
"It's been challenging," Holloman said Tuesday about the past year or so of his life. "I went somewhere to do something that I've always done, and my plans changed. Things have changed. I just had to battle it out, and my season went how it went. It wasn't terrible, but I feel like I could've done stuff better, but that's just life."
Any step up in a role Holloman was seeking was marginal at best. He only played 2.5 more minutes per game as a senior with the Wolfpack than he did as a junior with Michigan State. Holloman actually shot 1.4 fewer field goal attempts per contest, and his points per game only crept up from 9.1 to 9.2. NC State was also eliminated in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Meanwhile, at MSU, there was a Holloman-shaped hole in the Spartans' rotation. The lack of consistent two-guard play was perhaps Michigan State's biggest weakness. Tom Izzo's quartet of Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, and Carson Cooper started every game at the other positions, but MSU wound up starting four different players at shooting guard and never really found a permanent solution. Even with that, Michigan State still got to the Sweet 16 without Holloman.
Any Regrets?
So, the elephant in the room: if Holloman could go back in time, would he do anything differently?
"No comment," he simply said when asked that question. It's a simple, two-word answer, but it's a pretty clear indication of what he really thinks.
Izzo also said on local sportscaster Tim Staudt's radio show back in late March that a former player had been texting him about them regretting their decision to leave Michigan State. The other players to portal out of East Lansing last offseason were Xavier Booker and Gehrig Normand, and both of those decisions felt pretty amicable. Izzo didn't reveal who the player was, but it's pretty easy to deduce that he's referring to Holloman.
Holloman said that he never texted Izzo during the season (that sort of thing is probably an NCAA no-no), but that he "definitely" got in touch with his former coach once his season with NC State ended.
There was also no shortage of criticism directed at Holloman when he decided to enter the portal. When I noticed he was at Holt on Tuesday, my tweet got a reply suggesting fans throw concessions at him, and then a quote tweet asked fans to boo him. This is more than a year later, too.
"They never were in those meetings with me and Coach [Izzo] or me and my teammates," Holloman said about the criticism he has received. "I just thought it was funny, but then sometimes it's been like, 'Dang, man. Just stop. Stop worrying about me. That stuff happened; just move on.'"
College Career Not Necessarily Over
Holloman may not necessarily be ready to move on from college basketball just yet, though. He's currently waiting to see if he'll get another season of eligibility. Plenty of outgoing seniors, including Kohler, are pursuing legal action after the NCAA excluded them from its newly adopted "5-in-5" eligibility rules. If Holloman were to get that year of eligibility, which he seems to think will happen, he's not opposed to a return to MSU.
"If they have good plans," Holloman said when asked about that possibility. "They are guard-heavy right now, but if they welcome me and if it sounds good, yeah, I wouldn't mind coming back."
The already-packed backcourt would probably be the big hurdle here. Between Fears, Carlos Medlock Jr., Jasiah Jervis, Kur Teng, and Jordan Scott, and especially with the potentially super-late timing, there probably wouldn't be a ton of minutes for Holloman this season. Between Kohler and Holloman (if either were able to and wanted to come back), Kohler would probably be higher on the priority list.
Regardless of whether Holloman plays at MSU, another school, or professionally this coming season, he still has former teammates in East Lansing rooting for him. Guys were yelling "Tre!" and "Jiggy!" in the hallway adjacent to Holt's gym when they saw him, and there certainly aren't any hard feelings about Holloman's exit.
"It doesn't matter if he left or anything; it doesn't matter where he's at, what we're doing, how long we haven't seen each other, but it's always going to be happy feelings seeing him, my brother..." Carr said. "At the end of the day, he made it to the Elite Eight here, won the Big Ten championship here, Sweet 16 freshman year. He's won a lot of games here. Obviously, he's done a lot here, so in my opinion, he should get a warm welcome."
"Everybody has a plan and a path, so you can't really get mad at someone for doing their own thing or going their own way," Fears said about Holloman. "At the end of the day, I'm happy he was able to make history here with us. His name will forever be by the Magic Johnson statue in that Big Ten Championship [plaque] with us. He'll forever have a ring, and he's got banners up there. He did something here, so I'm just happy to be a part of that with him."
Boos and thrown popcorn were, thankfully, nonexistent in Holloman's appearance at Moneyball. He joined in with Team Faygo alongside rising sophomore Cam Ward and Jervis, losing in overtime to Team Tri-Star Trust, which featured Carr and redshirt freshman Jesse McCulloch.
Holloman stuck around and signed some more autographs while wearing a T-shirt featuring him and the rest of the 2024-25 MSU roster. His surprise appearance at Holt started and ended the same way: with either another person's phone or a Sharpie in his hand and plenty of fans surrounding him.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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