Potentially new NC State rising senior point guard Tre Holloman has started 18 games and played in 106 games in three years.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder averaged 9.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 23.1 minutes per game. He shot 37.3 percent from the field and 32.9 percent on three-pointers.
Holloman started the season coming off the bench for the first seven games, and then moved into the starting lineup against North Carolina on Nov. 27. He started for 16 games, and went to the bench after helping Michigan State rally past Oregon at home Feb. 8. Holloman came off the bench for the final 14 games.
I picked the Oregon game for a few reasons. MSU didn’t have Jeremy Fears Jr., who was out with an injury, so it was Holloman’s job from start-to-finish. Holloman only played 30 minutes or more in three games, and that was one of the three with 31 minutes. Plus, Oregon was a good team led by guard Jackson Shelstad and center Nate Bittle.
Holloman went 4 of 12 from the field, 3 of 7 on three-pointers and made both free throws for 13 points in a 86-74 win over the Ducks. He had a good floor game with eight assists, two rebounds, two steals and four turnovers.
What I didn’t know is that proved to be the game where freshman guard Jase Richardson (son of Jason Richardson) moved into the starting lineup for good and averaged 15.7 points per game as a starter. To understand Michigan State, is that Richardson became the star down the stretch, wing Jaden Akins was the second scorer and Fears/Holloman combined for the playmaking duties in forming the perimeter game. Nebraska-Omaha transfer Frankie Fidler came off the bench at small forward.
Michigan State essentially rotated five post players Coen Carr kind of a hybrid forward as one of the best athletes in the country. Carr, Xavier Booker and Jaxon Kohler were the primary power forwards, with Carson Cooper and Szymon Zapala the traditional centers.
The roles were pretty locked in, with the fear that Michigan State was essentially one more scorer away from reaching their goals. The lack of scoring caught up to the Spartans in scoring just 64 points against Auburn in the Elite Eight.
Here are four thoughts on Holloman based on this game:
1. Holloman has most of his offense beyond the free-throw line. Some of that was that Oregon mixed in some defense. What MSU tried to do was set a pick on a zone defender and Holloman would pull-up for the jump shot, whether a mid-range shot or three-point field goal.
Holloman didn’t get into the lane very much, with one of his few attempts, he challenged the 6-10 Bittle and threw up a wild shot.
Holloman proved passive in the first half his first basket coming with 6:15 left in the first half, when his defender got caught on a screen and he drained a open three-pointer. His other first-half basket came off the aforementioned zone offense where he pulled up off a pick. They tried it again, but he missed the next chance (keep that thought in a bit).
The Spartans, who were playing in front of Jason Richardson and the 2000 national championship team, came out flat at home, and were down 50-36 at halftime.
2. Who gave Michigan State some juice to start the second half? Holloman did.
Holloman started the half receiving a crosscourt pass and made a 3-pointer from the right corner. Then he got a steal, but missed the layup (keep that thought in a bit).
Holloman later added a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 62-61 with 11:59 left in the game, and the first half for Michigan State was long forgotten. Richardson took over the game in the second half and finished with 29 points, looking every bit of being a future first-round pick in June.
3. The essence of Holloman is that his plusses outweigh his negatives.
For every good play he’d make, he’d follow with not making the play. Come off the screen and pull-up for the jumper, but the next time miss the same shot. Get the nice steal only to miss the open court layup.
Holloman had four turnovers, but two of them weren’t good. He made a bad pass in the first half, and then he just dribbled into the lane fumbled the ball away. What he is good at doing is pass the ball ahead on the break. Cooper ran the floor hard at center and Holloman keeps his head up to pass the ball ahead.
The 4 of 12 from the field was a little misleading in that on two possessions, the ball got stuck and with the shot clock winding down, Holloman missed two three-pointers. Take out the two three-point shots and him challenging Bittle on a drive, the other nine shots were good open looks against Oregon’s mixture of man-to-man defense and zone defense.
4. If NC State were to get P.J. Haggerty of Memphis, you could see some similarities between Holloman playing off of Richardson and playing off of Haggerty.
There is no combo guard in Holloman, so if he doesn’t have the ball in his hands, you don’t notice him much. He makes the basic, normal passes at point guard. He got eight assists, but the lone one that would make the highlight shows was a nifty lob pass for a dunk.
Holloman playing off a quality second guard has been his role. He did play with Fears together at Michigan State prior to Richardson breaking into the starting lineup.
Defensively, Holloman was fine and Michigan State switched along the perimeter. Shelstad had a big first half, but it wasn’t against Holloman for the most part.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder averaged 9.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 23.1 minutes per game. He shot 37.3 percent from the field and 32.9 percent on three-pointers.
Holloman started the season coming off the bench for the first seven games, and then moved into the starting lineup against North Carolina on Nov. 27. He started for 16 games, and went to the bench after helping Michigan State rally past Oregon at home Feb. 8. Holloman came off the bench for the final 14 games.
I picked the Oregon game for a few reasons. MSU didn’t have Jeremy Fears Jr., who was out with an injury, so it was Holloman’s job from start-to-finish. Holloman only played 30 minutes or more in three games, and that was one of the three with 31 minutes. Plus, Oregon was a good team led by guard Jackson Shelstad and center Nate Bittle.
Holloman went 4 of 12 from the field, 3 of 7 on three-pointers and made both free throws for 13 points in a 86-74 win over the Ducks. He had a good floor game with eight assists, two rebounds, two steals and four turnovers.
What I didn’t know is that proved to be the game where freshman guard Jase Richardson (son of Jason Richardson) moved into the starting lineup for good and averaged 15.7 points per game as a starter. To understand Michigan State, is that Richardson became the star down the stretch, wing Jaden Akins was the second scorer and Fears/Holloman combined for the playmaking duties in forming the perimeter game. Nebraska-Omaha transfer Frankie Fidler came off the bench at small forward.
Michigan State essentially rotated five post players Coen Carr kind of a hybrid forward as one of the best athletes in the country. Carr, Xavier Booker and Jaxon Kohler were the primary power forwards, with Carson Cooper and Szymon Zapala the traditional centers.
The roles were pretty locked in, with the fear that Michigan State was essentially one more scorer away from reaching their goals. The lack of scoring caught up to the Spartans in scoring just 64 points against Auburn in the Elite Eight.
Here are four thoughts on Holloman based on this game:
1. Holloman has most of his offense beyond the free-throw line. Some of that was that Oregon mixed in some defense. What MSU tried to do was set a pick on a zone defender and Holloman would pull-up for the jump shot, whether a mid-range shot or three-point field goal.
Holloman didn’t get into the lane very much, with one of his few attempts, he challenged the 6-10 Bittle and threw up a wild shot.
Holloman proved passive in the first half his first basket coming with 6:15 left in the first half, when his defender got caught on a screen and he drained a open three-pointer. His other first-half basket came off the aforementioned zone offense where he pulled up off a pick. They tried it again, but he missed the next chance (keep that thought in a bit).
The Spartans, who were playing in front of Jason Richardson and the 2000 national championship team, came out flat at home, and were down 50-36 at halftime.
2. Who gave Michigan State some juice to start the second half? Holloman did.
Holloman started the half receiving a crosscourt pass and made a 3-pointer from the right corner. Then he got a steal, but missed the layup (keep that thought in a bit).
Holloman later added a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 62-61 with 11:59 left in the game, and the first half for Michigan State was long forgotten. Richardson took over the game in the second half and finished with 29 points, looking every bit of being a future first-round pick in June.
3. The essence of Holloman is that his plusses outweigh his negatives.
For every good play he’d make, he’d follow with not making the play. Come off the screen and pull-up for the jumper, but the next time miss the same shot. Get the nice steal only to miss the open court layup.
Holloman had four turnovers, but two of them weren’t good. He made a bad pass in the first half, and then he just dribbled into the lane fumbled the ball away. What he is good at doing is pass the ball ahead on the break. Cooper ran the floor hard at center and Holloman keeps his head up to pass the ball ahead.
The 4 of 12 from the field was a little misleading in that on two possessions, the ball got stuck and with the shot clock winding down, Holloman missed two three-pointers. Take out the two three-point shots and him challenging Bittle on a drive, the other nine shots were good open looks against Oregon’s mixture of man-to-man defense and zone defense.
4. If NC State were to get P.J. Haggerty of Memphis, you could see some similarities between Holloman playing off of Richardson and playing off of Haggerty.
There is no combo guard in Holloman, so if he doesn’t have the ball in his hands, you don’t notice him much. He makes the basic, normal passes at point guard. He got eight assists, but the lone one that would make the highlight shows was a nifty lob pass for a dunk.
Holloman playing off a quality second guard has been his role. He did play with Fears together at Michigan State prior to Richardson breaking into the starting lineup.
Defensively, Holloman was fine and Michigan State switched along the perimeter. Shelstad had a big first half, but it wasn’t against Holloman for the most part.
