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HOLT – Tre Holloman arrived wearing a Michigan State sweatshirt with the same Spartan head logo he famously protected and kissed. The moment that brought him heaps of adoration.
From the same fanbase that, two months later, turned on him in 2025 when the team captain shockingly announced he would be entering the transfer portal after three seasons at MSU.
Admittedly, things did not go as planned when the combo guard left Tom Izzo’s program and landed at North Carolina State with coach Will Wade. But on Tuesday, July 21, Holloman returned to mid-Michigan after a stint with the Orlando Magic in the NBA Summer League to get some run with and against his former teammates at the Moneyball Pro-Am.
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And to profess his appreciation for Izzo, the Spartans and the community he now lives in as a new father.
“This is home for me,” Holloman said before taking the court at Holt High. “I was here for three years. My daughter’s from Lansing, and I live in Lansing. So this is home.”
Asked if he would change how things went or do anything differently, Holloman said, “Uhh, no comment.”
His former teammate Carson Cooper, who signed after the season with the Memphis Grizzlies and also participated in the Summer League, said it was clear that Holloman’s situation was complicated and difficult to watch as a friend.
“It’s a tough moment, for sure, definitely kind of a learning moment and teaching moment not just for him but [for] everybody,” said Cooper, who did not play Tuesday but came to watch after spending time with Holloman and other former MSU players in Las Vegas. “Everybody kind of understands what the portal is. Everyone says the grass isn’t greener everywhere, so it’s really got to be a good situation when people leave.
“Yeah, it’s tough. But I hope he can get a shot somewhere.”
Less than 36 hours after crying at his locker in Atlanta, where the Big Ten-champion Spartans fell a game short of the Final Four with an Elite Eight loss to Auburn, Holloman announced on April 1, 2025, his plan to enter the transfer portal.
Holloman, who shared the captaincy with Jaden Akins, helped the Spartans go 30-7 and win Izzo’s record-tying 11th Big Ten championship. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Minneapolis native averaged 9.1 points, 3.7 assists and 1.9 rebounds while shooting 37.3% from 3-point range and 85.1% at the free throw line. He started 16 of MSU’s 37 games but moved to the bench in early February that year when Jase Richardson – ironically a teammate of Holloman’s again on Orlando’s Summer League squad – joined MSU’s starting lineup.
In what eventually was Holloman’s final home game on senior day against Michigan that season, he pushed two Wolverines off the midcourt logo as they attempted to block MSU players from their farewell kiss. After the game and with the Breslin Center crowd still buzzing and on its feet, Izzo had Holloman become the first junior to take part in the tradition.
“It was really, really hard because I was here for three years. I’m going to a new coach, and I've got to pick the right decision. And then, like, this is home. My friends are here, my teammates are here, I got a Hall of Fame coach here,” Holloman said of his decision. “It was tough, real tough.”
Online, Holloman and his mother, Crystal Flint (a basketball coach in Minneapolis), became targets for MSU fans’ frustrations and venom. It was hard for them to escape the criticism.
“They were never in those meetings with me and coach or me and my mom or me and my teammates,” Holloman said of the blowback. “I just thought it was funny. But then sometimes, I’d just be like, dang man. Just, man, stop worrying about me. That stuff happened, move on.”
However, his former teammates had his back.
“Obviously, a lot of people don’t know the behind-the-scenes stuff and what takes part in people’s actions and decisions and why they might choose to go a different way,” Jeremy Fears Jr. said Tuesday. “I think 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.”
Said Cooper: “Fans are tough. They’re gonna say what they’re gonna say. But, I mean, he’s still family. We’d come in together for three years. He does whatever he does, but there’s no bad blood at all. We came in and we chopped it up like we’ve been together forever. … Spartans stick together.”
Though he said he and Izzo did not communicate during the season, Holloman and his former coach texted almost immediately after N.C. State’s quick tournament exit. And MSU fans remained baffled, angry and hurt that Holloman left, with the Spartans eventually lacking the versatility in shooting and point guard play along with the defense he provided.
Holloman said he returned to Lansing from Las Vegas and has been working out at MSU, reconnecting with Izzo and the program he departed a little more than a year ago.
“Coach is a real genuine guy. I never doubted that,” Holloman said. “But the fans and stuff? Some of them, yeah. But most of them, I thought they were gonna be like, ‘Yeah, forget him.’ But it’s been love here. I can’t thank him enough for making me feel special still.”
In his one season with North Carolina State, Holloman started 27 of his 32 games while averaging 9.2 points and 2.1 assists in 25.6 minutes.
“It’s been challenging," he said. “Because I went somewhere to do something that I’ve always done, and my plans changed and things changed. I just had to battle it out. My season went how it went. It wasn’t terrible. I could’ve done stuff different. But that’s just life.”
Discord began to show and grow late in the season between Holloman and Wade, who also left the Wolfpack after one season to return to LSU following a First Four exit from the NCAA Tournament. Playing time after the new year became sporadic for Holloman, and it included a tense early March home game against Duke which he started but played only five minutes before Wade sent him to the bench.
“Obviously, you could tell it was a little difficult for him. A different situation, a different environment than he was used to,” Fears said. “It’s like anybody – if you’re somewhere for a long period of time and you kind of change, it’s really different. But at the end of the day, they still had some big wins and they played a little bit, and they had some big games and stuff. Just happy for him.
“But just overall, he’s my brother. We won a Big Ten championship together, we got a lot of history. He helped me and showed me the way a little bit my freshman and sophomore years here. So it’s always love and happiness when I see Tre.”
It’s the same feeling a more mature Holloman said he has when he sees his 4-month-old daughter, Oaklyn Grace. And though he has time, his senior season situation is one he plans to use as a lesson for her as she grows.
“Nothing is promised. You've got to work for everything. And always be a good person,” Holloman said of the lessons he plans to pass along to Oaklyn. “I would just tell her don’t think stuff is given. You've got to prove everything. It’s either you or the next person, so take care of your stuff.”
Fears, one of four captains on MSU’s team that went 27-8 and made it to the Sweet 16 after Holloman’s departure, said Izzo allowing Holloman to return is not a surprise.
“That’s who coach is. Coach welcomes all his guys back,” Fears said. “He still keeps in contact with parents and guys. And even our assistants that even recruited some of these guys, still keeping in contact and checking in. I just don’t think you’ll find that in a lot of universities and a lot of places and programs. Nowadays, kids go to three or four different schools – and [where’s] home? Who can you go back and talk to and spend time with?”
While Lansing is now Holloman’s home, his basketball future likely resides elsewhere. He hopes to catch on with a G League team or potentially play overseas. However, the 22-year-old also is part of a class action lawsuit (along with former MSU teammate Jaxon Kohler) fighting the NCAA for a fifth year of eligibility after the governing body adopted new rules last month but does not include the 2022 class of recruits. He entered the transfer portal again in anticipation of a potential fifth-year option.
“I’m just waiting,” he said, adding, “whatever happens happens.” He said he anticipates schools will begin reaching out after the lawsuit is determined and settled, but he has not spoken with any programs. And as he waits, he is working out once again at Breslin under Izzo’s tutelage.
“Coach has been so welcoming,” Holloman said. “I can’t thank coach enough for taking me back in kind of. It’s just been good. I’m blessed, I’m thankful.”
Which begs the question: Could a return to MSU be possible?
“I mean, if they have a good plan,” Holloman said. “But they are guard-heavy right now. But if they welcome me and if it sounds good, then yeah, I wouldn’t mind coming back because I know my daughter’s here.”
Returning All-American point guard Fears also pointed to the Spartans’ roster construction – MSU welcomes freshmen guards Carlos Medlock Jr. and Jasiah Jervis and is bringing back sophomore Jordan Scott after a strong debut.
But Fears also said he cherishes the memories he and Holloman made in their 2025 title run.
“I’m happy he was able to make history here with us,” Fears said. “His name will be forever by the Magic Johnson statue in that Big Ten championship with us. He’ll forever have a ring, and he’s got banners up there.
“He did something here.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tre Holloman returns 'home' to Michigan State after polarizing transfer
