Roster Roulette: Is Tre Holloman a System Fit or a Depth Patch for Cincinnati?

Opinion: Jerrod Calhoun is playing a high-stakes game of roster roulette. As he constructs his first team at Cincinnati, the Bearcats are staring down a single open roster spot for the 2026-27 season—as Sports Illustrated first reported—and the move they make now will determine if they are building a cohesive unit or simply patching a sinking ship of depth.

According to reporting from CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein, Cincinnati is among a handful of programs, including Utah State, St. John's, and Providence, that have reached out to former NC State guard Tre Holloman. On paper, Holloman fits the mold of a high-energy addition. A 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard, Holloman is known as a defensive maven. Sports Illustrated notes that he ranked 18th in the Big Ten in defensive rating during the 2024-25 season and has averaged more than two steals per game over the last two years.

However, the real story isn't just Holloman's defensive pedigree; it's the desperation of the situation. Calhoun is attempting to rebuild the program from scratch using an entirely new roster of transfers. While Calhoun told Sports Illustrated earlier this offseason that he is not concerned with the program's seven-year absence from the NCAA Tournament because his recruits understand the mission to return, the margin for error is razor-thin.

Adding Holloman would provide a steady hand—he averaged nine points, three assists, and two rebounds per game over the last two seasons and shot 42% from the field in 32 appearances for the Wolfpack last year. But the fit is complicated by a legal cloud hanging over the roster.

As Sports Illustrated reports, the eligibility of several players, including Holloman and Cincinnati's own MJ Collins, depends on the outcome of a court battle between the NCAA and the Class of 2022. While players from that class remain eligible for now, final confirmation is expected in the coming weeks. This creates a volatile dynamic: Collins has already shown promise for Cincinnati during play in the Bahamas, and Sports Illustrated describes him as a "massive piece" for the team this fall if he is cleared to play.

If Calhoun uses his final spot on Holloman, he is betting on a specific type of defensive grit to anchor a team of strangers. If the eligibility rulings swing the wrong way, the Bearcats aren't just missing a player; they are missing the structural integrity of their rotation. Calhoun insists there is "no secret sauce" to his approach other than hard work and high-level recruiting, but as the 2026-27 season looms, the Bearcats are finding that hard work is often at the mercy of a courtroom.