When Tom Izzo recruits players, he looks for OKGs. In case you're unfamiliar with what that is, it means "our kind of guys" and it's a description that fits a lot of guys on the current roster, including Tre Holloman.
Izzo's "kind of guys" are usually hard-nosed, tough, easy to coach, and willing to learn and live in the gym. He doesn't want guys who kind of like basketball, he wants guys who live and breathe basketball. That's why Holloman is one of the prime examples of an OKG.
As a former football player, Holloman has plenty of toughness and he has consistently improved over his first three seasons in East Lansing. He came to Michigan State as a four-star guard and was kind of overshadowed by AJ Hoggard and then Jeremy Fears, but he has remained consistent and is having the best year of his career, setting up for a breakout senior campaign.
Earlier this week, analytics expert Evan Miya proved just how much of an OKG Holloman is by ranking the top "glue guys" in the country and listing the Michigan State junior.
Here are the top "glue guys" in the country, according to ratings at https://t.co/cegyfz96ax.
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) February 4, 2025
These are players who have a much bigger impact on their team's performance than their individual stats would indicate. JoJo Tugler and Dylan Cardwell lead the group 👇 pic.twitter.com/yyc3DF519g
According to Miya, a "glue guy" is a player who has a much larger impact on a team's performance than their individual stats might indicate. Per his ranking, Holloman is one of the best in that category in college basketball.
Other Big Ten players on the list are Steven Crowl (Wisconsin) and Matthew Nicholson (Northwestern). Holloman is the only guard listed from the Big Ten.
But the description for "glue guy" pertaining to Holloman is spot-on. The former two-sport athlete has worked his way into the starting lineup and averages 8.0 points and 3.6 assists per game as the rotating point guard, playing 22.4 minutes per game. He's seemingly always making plays on the defensive end that don't show up on the stat sheet and he's good for 1-2 clutch threes per game.
Oh, and he's shooting about 94 percent from the free throw line which has helped in late-game situations already this season and will surely play a factor moving forward.
We all knew it already, but it's nice to see Holloman getting some national love for being an elite "glue guy" for Izzo.