Tre Holloman is a third-year guard at Michigan State who had appeared in 76 games for the Spartans before Wednesday. Career starts: two. Starts this season: zero. But with an opponent in North Carolina that starts three guards 6-foot-3 or smaller,

Jase Richardson came off the bench to score 13 points as Michigan State beat Colorado 72-56 in its first appearance in the Maui Invitational since 2019.

They weren’t leaving Maui without beating North Carolina. Or at least putting up the best wire-to-wire fight they could. It’s as if they firmly understood that if you want to be taken seriously,