
Ex-Michigan State guard Tre Holloman commits to NC State
Holloman was designated the No. 81 overall prospect and No. 12 point guard in the transfer portal according to 247's composite rankings.
Despite being a captain and earning significant minutes in 2024-25, Holloman had trouble cracking the starting lineup, being awarded just 16 starts in 37 games. The 6-2 guard set career marks in minutes (23.1), points (9.1) and assists (3.7) anyway in helping the Spartans win the Big Ten and reach the Elite Eight in this spring's NCAA Tournament.
The Wolfpack are now helmed by former LSU and McNeese State coach Will Wade, who has been active in the transfer portal - by necessity. Seven players off of last season's roster have entered the portal, including most guard Trey Parker, who announced his departure Friday.
He joined forwards Ismael Diouf and Ben Middlebrooks as well as guards Bryce Heard, Marcus Hill, Mike James and Dennis Parker Jr.
Wade has brought in former McNeese State guards Alyn Breed and Quadier Copeland and received commitments from two high school players, Matthew Able and Zymicah Wilkins, who will join lone returnee Paul McNeil and Holloman in Raleigh.
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The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Oregon motivated by College Football Playoff loss to Ohio State
And lost by 46. That was Lanning's first game at Oregon in 2022, a brutal loss at the hands of Georgia that can only be eclipsed by the brutal loss at the hands of eventual national champion Ohio State in last year's Rose Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal -- as the nation's No.1 team and national title favorite. But ignore those bookend beatdowns, there's a bigger picture here. "The process works," Lanning said on the dais at Big Ten Media Days, throwing talking points chum to the masses. "We're close." This, of course, means next to nothing in the coaching world of "you're the last thing you put on tape." So I got Lanning away from the stage Wednesday, and asked what exactly does doubling down mean? Oregon has won 35 games in his three seasons, and last year won the conference championship in its first season in the Big Ten. The Ducks have hit nearly every significant metric of growth under Lanning, from elite recruiting, to a winning record vs. ranked teams, to sitting on top of the college football world for nearly two months. MAN WITH PLAN: Oregon's Lanning pitches playoff that ends Jan. 1 ABSOLUTE POWER: Big Ten, SEC fight to shape College Football Playoff So what in the name of Dan Fouts does doubling down mean? "We've had a lot of success, and I really attribute that to our growth mindset," Lanning said. "Our DNA mindset of who we are." Wait, what? So I got annoyed with the nothing answer, and Lanning got annoyed at me -- and the next thing you know, Kirby Smart arrived. And by Kirby Smart, I mean the aura of the best coach in college football and Lanning's mentor. And it went about like what you'd think. "Doubling down is continuing to work your ass off at practice," Lanning said. "Doubling down is continuing to run when your body tells you 'no.' Doubling down is getting necessary sleep. It's focusing intently on all those pieces and more. All the time." Hallelujah, now we're getting somewhere. There's a reason Lanning and three Oregon players who attended Big Ten media days were peppered with questions about the loss to Ohio State, and the impact moving forward. And it's not because of the hoard of swooning Ohio State media endlessly reliving Scarlet and Gray glory. When you fail so spectacularly on the biggest stage of all, there must be a complete deconstruction of the disaster. It's not simply losing to a better team, which Ohio State was on that day. It's how did it fall apart so quickly, and how was the preparation so ineffective? How was an Oregon team built for this moment so out of its element? POWER RANKINGS: Big Ten starts with Penn State, Ohio State on top Ohio State scored on the third play of the game. Ohio State's first two scoring drives took all of six plays. Ohio State led by 31 midway through the second quarter, and Oregon looked a whole lot like the Ducks team that was dismantled in Lanning's first game against Georgia. Outcoached, outplayed, outclassed. So yeah, it's a fair question to ask how that Rose Bowl loss translates to 2025, especially considering this talented Oregon team has gone from a record-setting quarterback (Dillon Gabriel) with 63 career starts, to one (Dante Moore) with five. You don't grind for three years on a buildout, painstakingly changing everything about a program and molding it into what Nick taught Kirby and Kirby taught you, and ignore the elephant in the room. "A lot of work, man, a lot of it," said Oregon linebacker Bryce Boettcher, a two-sport athlete who returned for his senior season instead of playing professional baseball. He hasn't forgotten the suddenness of what happened in Pasadena on New Year's Day. Why in the world would he? "It drives you," Boettcher continued. "It's hard to explain, the way it ended. That's a problem. That's not something you ever forget." And that's where Lanning tangibly doubled down on what he knows works. He protected his roster from key transfer portal defections, and added a handful of critical pieces (starting OTs Isaiah World and Alex Harkey, RB Makhi Hughes) to solidify the team around Moore. He went from taking a small group of players on a leadership retreat, to taking 35. Because more is better when adversity hits, and because good teams are led by coaches. Great teams are led by players. Great teams that can withstand giving up a touchdown on the third play of the Rose Bowl, and not crawl into a fetal position at the thought of it all. A great, player-led team goes on the road this year in the Big Ten, and isn't impacted by a whiteout at Penn State, or a 3,000-mile trip to Piscataway, New Jersey. Because who among us wouldn't travel three time zones to reach lovely Piscataway? A great, player-led team isn't concerned with anything but doubling down and completing the buildout. "What happened last year has nothing to do with the future," Lanning said. Neither do the bookend beatdowns. But they're all part of the bigger picture. Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.


The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Big Ten College Football Playoff plan would make season worse
On a wild Saturday last November, Florida upset Mississippi and Oklahoma stunned Alabama in results that altered the playoff field. That same day, Penn State barely survived Minnesota, and Arizona State wriggled past Brigham Young in a thriller with playoff stakes. Regular-season television ratings peak in November. It's the rest of the season that could use a boost. That's where Petitti's controversial 4+4+2+2+1+3 playoff plan falls flat. Big Ten playoff plan would devalue non-conference games Petitti claims to want a playoff model that would improve the regular season, but his plan wouldn't achieve that goal. The surest way to improve the season would be to incentivizing teams to play tough non-conference games and reduce the feast of cupcake games that shackle the season's early weeks. Petitti, though, aims to devalue non-conference games. November would stay great in his plan, and play-in Saturday would generate buzz, but his idea to award more than 80% of the playoff bids based on conference standings and play-in games would diminish September and, to a lesser extent, even October. "Fans will gravitate to" play-in games, Petitti said Tuesday at Big Ten media days. At what cost? One play-in Saturday is not worth deflating September. If the playoff became a Petitti production based mostly on conference results, interconference games like Ohio State-Texas, LSU-Clemson and Michigan-Oklahoma would become glorified exhibitions. ABSOLUTE POWER: Big Ten, SEC fight to shape College Football Playoff HOME FIELDS: Our ranking of toughest Big Ten college football stadiums Play-in Saturday could prop up average teams Petitti admits to wanting to prolong the playoff hopes of average teams. He sees the chance for an 8-4 Big Ten team winning a play-in game and cracking the playoff as an asset, not a detriment. I see a structure that would make the season's first two months less relevant. I'm envisioning a scenario in which Iowa loses to Iowa State in a September non-conference matchup, and the Hawkeyes slog to 8-4 before winning a play-in game to reach the playoff, while the Cyclones go 10-2, lose a play-in game and miss the playoff. That's how a playoff becomes a farce. Fortunately, Petitti's playoff plan is going nowhere fast. He's failed to gain support from other conferences. The playoff format for 2026 and beyond remains undecided. Petitti would like to diminish the selection committee's role and, as he puts it, allow playoff spots to be decided on the field and not in a boardroom. In practice, his plan not only would diminish the selection committee, but it also could dilute the influence of some November results. Alabama, Mississippi and Miami lost to unranked opponents late last November, results that bounced them from the playoff. If Petitti's model had been in place, the losing teams would have retained a playoff path through play-in games. I don't see how college football's season improves if Syracuse upsetting Miami on the final day of November carries no weight on the playoff picture. How to actually improve college football's regular season Petitti's playoff plan would earmark four automatic bids for the Big Ten and four more for the SEC - that's half of a 16-team field - while the Big 12 and ACC received only two automatic bids apiece. Is it any wonder why the Big Ten hatched this plan, and the Big 12 and ACC detest it? If Petitti wants to get serious about improving the regular season, then he's going about this backward by focusing on conference standings and propping up mediocre teams. Here's how you improve the regular season: Preserve automatic bids for conference champions, but keep most of the playoff bracket open to at-large bids, and devise a system in which the playoff committee values meaningful non-conference results while evaluating bubble teams. As it is now, Big Ten teams like Indiana and Nebraska are canceling their toughest non-conference games in favor of weaker schedules, and SEC teams cling to their Championship Subdivision games like a child hugs a security blanket. These gimme games bog down the schedule, particularly early in the season. To rectify that, task the selection committee to reward teams that schedule - and win - tough non-conference games and hold accountable bubble teams that beefed up their record purely by blasting patsies. Do this, and you'd spur more Big Ten vs. SEC games, of which there are only three this season. Likewise, only three SEC teams will play a Big 12 opponent. Generating more high-stakes non-conference clashes between Power Four opponents not only would become a boon for September audience, those games also would help the committee separate the wheat from the chaff come selection time. Imagine if Oklahoma played Oklahoma State this October, instead of Kent State, or if Texas played Texas Tech in September, instead of Sam Houston, or if Southern California opened the season against Missouri, instead of Missouri State. That's how you improve the season. College football needs a play-in Saturday in December less than it needs more significant non-conference games, some of which could restore rivalries that conference realignment interrupted. College basketball figured this out. The NCAA men's tournament selection committee values victories against opponents within the top quadrants and thereby rewards teams that schedule tough. Qualifying for March Madness isn't purely an exercise of assembling a fine record. Who you played, and who you beat, matters. Teams that avoid tough games are held accountable in bubble debates. Petitti claims he's got college football's regular season at heart in his playoff plan. He's wrong. His playoff plan would diminish and neglect the non-conference portion of the schedule that needs enhancement. Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@ and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.


Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
Kansas coach Bill Self hospitalized, has 2 stents inserted
July 25 - Bill Self, the winningest men's basketball coach in Kansas Jayhawks history, was admitted to the hospital and had two stents inserted on Thursday, the university announced. The 62-year-old Self, who has guided the Jayhawks since 2003, led the team in its final summer practice on Thursday morning. According to Kansas officials, he was then escorted to Lawrence Memorial Hospital after he "felt unwell and experienced some concerning symptoms." Per the university, the procedure to insert two stents "went very well, and he is expected to make a full recovery. "He is in good spirits and expects to be released from the hospital soon." Self's health has caused concern in the past. He missed the Big 12 conference tournament and the NCAA Tournament in March 2023 due to a heart condition. He underwent a standard heart catheterization after experiencing chest tightness. Self also had two stents placed to treat blocked arteries. Self has won two national championships while at the Kansas helm, amassing a 609-156 record over 22 seasons with the program. Under Self, the Jayhawks have won 16 regular-season conference titles and eight conference tournament championships. --Field Level Media