Let me preface this by saying, no this is not an April fool’s joke. To me, this is one of the worst days of the year because you don’t know what to believe, but a former Michigan State player reached out to Tom Izzo three weeks ago to talk about the regrets he has.
While Izzo wouldn’t say who the player was, per Chris Solari, he mentioned that the former Spartan reached out to him three weeks ago and has been admitting that he made a mistake.
Again, Izzo didn’t say who this player was, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s probably who everyone thinks it is: Tre Holloman. It’s dangerous to speculate or spread rumors, but there are three players to choose from, and two made the right decision. There was only one player who made a clear mistake, and that was Holloman.
The fact that he reached out to Izzo and said that he made a mistake is the least surprising development ever when you consider that he threw away a legitimate legacy as a fan favorite to become the fifth scoring option on a 20-14 NC State team that lost in the First Four.
Going from being one game away from a Final Four and being projected to start as a senior and play a huge role for a Big Ten contender to the fifth-leading scorer on an average ACC team was quite the wake-up call.
To make matters worse, Holloman’s head coach — Will Wade — who promised him a role that he never got left NC State high-and-dry for LSU.
Calling Holloman’s departure a “mistake” is a massive understatement.
Tre Holloman could have really helped this team
Though I will say that Holloman staying would have meant that Michigan State probably wouldn’t have pursued Divine Ugochukwu, but you never truly know. Izzo likely gives Holloman a lot more run at the one and we probably don’t see Jeremy Fears Jr. playing 35-plus minutes every night.
Holloman would have started at the two-guard spot for sure and he would’ve played similar minutes (25.6) to his lone season at NC State — or more. He would’ve been trusted more as a go-to scorer than he was at NC State where he averaged just 0.1 more points per game than he did as a junior at Michigan State.
And if Izzo did still land Divine while keeping Holloman, he really would have helped when the Miami transfer went down with a season-ending injury. He probably would’ve played 30 minutes per game.
Instead, he chose to pursue a role that was never quite there for him at a program where the head coach showed zero loyalty over playing for a Hall of Famer with Final Four aspirations.
Life comes at you fast.