- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 399,917
- Reaction score
- 43
On Tuesday, ironically on April Fools Day, Michigan State basketball's co-captain Tre Holloman shocked Spartan fans when it was announced, and then confirmed, that he would be foregoing his senior season at MSU to enter the transfer portal.
Like many, I was left trying to make sense of the decision. Why would Holloman, fresh off a deep run in the NCAA Tournament and poised for a big role as a senior, decide to leave the Spartans to find a new home?
Was it greed? No one could really blame him if it was. While we know that while MSU does pay their players a healthy NIL salary, there is an understanding that Michigan State isn't handing out the level of deals we have seen this offseason, where starting-caliber players are rumored to be getting offers of over $2 million to leave their current schools.
Was it because he hated Michigan State? That doesn't seem likely at all. By all accounts, Tre Holloman was a great teammate and leader, and we all saw that on display when he defended the logo tradition in the win over rival Michigan on senior night.
With the benefit of hindsight and some amateur gumshoe work on social media, I think I have found at least a big part of the equation that seems to be missing for some Spartan fans who have started to direct a lot of their anger and confusion at Tre Holloman and his family this week.
Tre Holloman's mother, Crystal Flint, is an accomplished basketball player and coach in her own right. She is also very active on social media, supporting her son and the Michigan State program, despite being an assistant coach for the women's team at Minnesota. At the top of her profile on X.com, she has a post pinned from all the way back in 2023 where she uses the hashtag '#TRUEpointguard' to describe her son:
I say this a lot in my articles, but I will say it again: I'm not an insider. I haven't talked to Tre Holloman or his family. But I do have some connections and hear some things and I can say that I have heard whispers over the years that Tre Holloman and his family view him as a starting point guard. Not that you need to be an insider to figure that out, you can see it right in his mother's post.
However, the opportunity to start at point guard never became available for Holloman. A.J. Hoggard and Tyson Walker shared that role in Holloman's first two seasons with the team, then a freshman by the name of Jeremy Fears Jr., a classic Tom Izzo style point guard, was brought in to takeover that role. In hindsight, if Holloman really wanted an opportunity to play point guard, it was a testament to his loyalty to MSU that he didn't transfer as soon as Fears committed to the Spartans. He was even willing to sacrifice and come off the bench as a junior, and honestly, if he stayed, there is a chance they would have asked him to do that again if Jase Richardson decided to return for one more season in the green and white.
If this whole time, Holloman was just looking for a chance to see what he can do as a starting point guard, then this offseason was his last time to find that opportunity, which was never going to come at MSU, and he will presumably be getting a massive raise along with it.
For Spartan fans who are hurt and upset, I get it, but I also don't like seeing people attacking him and his mother on social media either. It's troubling behavior and doesn't reflect well on the university or the fan base, especially when we didn't have the full story of why the decision was made. For what it's worth, his teammates all reacted positively to the news and wished him well, so this might not have been as big of a shock to the program as it was to the fans...
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.
This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Final thoughts on Tre Holloman's decision to transfer from MSU
Continue reading...
Like many, I was left trying to make sense of the decision. Why would Holloman, fresh off a deep run in the NCAA Tournament and poised for a big role as a senior, decide to leave the Spartans to find a new home?
Was it greed? No one could really blame him if it was. While we know that while MSU does pay their players a healthy NIL salary, there is an understanding that Michigan State isn't handing out the level of deals we have seen this offseason, where starting-caliber players are rumored to be getting offers of over $2 million to leave their current schools.
Was it because he hated Michigan State? That doesn't seem likely at all. By all accounts, Tre Holloman was a great teammate and leader, and we all saw that on display when he defended the logo tradition in the win over rival Michigan on senior night.
With the benefit of hindsight and some amateur gumshoe work on social media, I think I have found at least a big part of the equation that seems to be missing for some Spartan fans who have started to direct a lot of their anger and confusion at Tre Holloman and his family this week.
Tre Holloman's mother, Crystal Flint, is an accomplished basketball player and coach in her own right. She is also very active on social media, supporting her son and the Michigan State program, despite being an assistant coach for the women's team at Minnesota. At the top of her profile on X.com, she has a post pinned from all the way back in 2023 where she uses the hashtag '#TRUEpointguard' to describe her son:
I say this a lot in my articles, but I will say it again: I'm not an insider. I haven't talked to Tre Holloman or his family. But I do have some connections and hear some things and I can say that I have heard whispers over the years that Tre Holloman and his family view him as a starting point guard. Not that you need to be an insider to figure that out, you can see it right in his mother's post.
However, the opportunity to start at point guard never became available for Holloman. A.J. Hoggard and Tyson Walker shared that role in Holloman's first two seasons with the team, then a freshman by the name of Jeremy Fears Jr., a classic Tom Izzo style point guard, was brought in to takeover that role. In hindsight, if Holloman really wanted an opportunity to play point guard, it was a testament to his loyalty to MSU that he didn't transfer as soon as Fears committed to the Spartans. He was even willing to sacrifice and come off the bench as a junior, and honestly, if he stayed, there is a chance they would have asked him to do that again if Jase Richardson decided to return for one more season in the green and white.
If this whole time, Holloman was just looking for a chance to see what he can do as a starting point guard, then this offseason was his last time to find that opportunity, which was never going to come at MSU, and he will presumably be getting a massive raise along with it.
For Spartan fans who are hurt and upset, I get it, but I also don't like seeing people attacking him and his mother on social media either. It's troubling behavior and doesn't reflect well on the university or the fan base, especially when we didn't have the full story of why the decision was made. For what it's worth, his teammates all reacted positively to the news and wished him well, so this might not have been as big of a shock to the program as it was to the fans...
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.
This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Final thoughts on Tre Holloman's decision to transfer from MSU
Continue reading...
