Tre Holloman turned up at Moneyball this week, and for Michigan State fans, that alone was enough to stop and stare.
The former Spartans guard, one of the more divisive departures of the Tom Izzo era, was spotted at Holt on Tuesday as the annual Pro-Am rolled on. Jacob Cotsonika noted on social media, “Interesting scene here at Holt, as Tre Holloman is here at Moneyball. Seems like he might be playing.”
It was a notable return for a player who had become a major part of Michigan State’s rise during the 2024-25 season. Holloman spent two years grinding in the program before carving out a sixth man-type role as a junior for the Big Ten champions.
From there, he kept climbing in the eyes of the fan base. He was defending teammates in on-court scraps against rivals, he delivered a tearful apology after the Elite Eight loss to Auburn, and he was starting to look like a true leader for a team that had bigger things ahead.
That made his decision to leave sting even more. Holloman transferred to NC State to play for Will Wade, and the move landed with a thud because he was walking away from a situation where a bigger role on a national title contender seemed to be waiting for him. Once it became clear he would be filling basically the same kind of role at NC State that he had just played at Michigan State, the fit looked a lot less appealing.
Izzo later said that a former player had contacted him and admitted he felt like he had made a mistake by leaving Michigan State. The assumption around the program was that he was talking about Holloman.
Now Holloman is back in the orbit of the Spartans again, at least for the moment. He made his Moneyball debut last weekend and then showed up again Tuesday, giving him another chance to be around the program after lingering near it since the end of the 2025-26 college basketball season.
Carson Cooper was also at Moneyball on Tuesday after wrapping up his Summer League run in Sunday night’s championship game. Cooper’s team fell to Yaxel Lendeborg and the Golden State Warriors, though Cooper still stood out with 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting off the bench.
Holloman’s own Summer League stint was brief. He scored two points in five minutes.
Holloman had entered the transfer portal after the season in hopes of being granted a fifth year under the new NCAA “five-in-five” rule, but that does not appear likely to happen.
Michigan State has seen other transfer-outs come back around the program over the years, including Chris Allen and Korie Lucious, and Holloman now seems to be in that same lane - back to visit, back to get shots up, and back around teammates and Izzo. Whether it’s simply a visit or something more, the sight of him at Moneyball is enough to reopen the question of what might have been if he had stayed.
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