All it took was 40 minutes for Aden Holloway to announce his presence to the college basketball world.
In Auburn’s first game against what is now No. 9 Baylor, the freshman guard posted 19 points and six assists.
In six games, Holloway has had some ups and downs, but he hasn’t gotten too high or low.
“The season started out, individually for me, kind of good a little bit,” Holloway said. “We lost the first one to Baylor, but I feel like I played OK, personally. My last game was pretty bad, but you just have to look forward to the next game and try to bounce back.”
The obvious part of the freshman’s game that has stuck out is his three point shooting. On the young season, Holloway is shooting 40 percent from deep and has a true shooting of 93.7 percent on spot up looks, which ranks him in the 99th percentile on Synergy.
In addition to Holloway, Auburn has a few elite shooters, and it allows Auburn to play a fast, fun style of basketball, a style that Holloway loves playing.
“It’s great just having a lot of different guys be able to shoot 3s,” Holloway said. “It allows us to play a little bit faster, get more attempts up. With a lot of volume shooters, the more attempts you get, the more you see go in, the more hot you get. It makes the game more fun, really, just playing with a lot of shooters.”
As he’s played more games, Holloway has started to gain more and more confidence which leads to him being more ambitious with his passes.
His assist rate sits at 28 percent, which is in the top 150 in the country, so it’s safe to say he’s figuring something out there.
“I would say the first game, first scrimmage, I wasn’t really making those passes,” Holloway said. “But now that I’m playing with them more and more, being out with them each night, it’s just getting easier finding people on back cuts, lobs and kick-out 3s, stuff like that. It’s definitely easier as the games go on.”
Holloway had his worst game of the season against Virginia Tech going 0-of-7 from the field and only having two assists, but even in a poor game, Holloway still grabbed three steals and finished as a +12.
How? Simple: he cares about one thing, according to Bruce Pearl.
“Well I've seen Aden really care about winning only, winning first and foremost,” Pearl said. “His own player development is important to him, but anything and everything he needs to do to improve, to adjust, to learn to get better, it's just all he cares about is winning. And that's going to serve him well his entire career.”
As a smaller guard standing at 6-foot-1 and 178 pounds, Holloway’s biggest adjustment from high school to college has been on the defensive end. Currently, he’s allowing 0.917 points per possession and opponents are shooting 42.5 percent from the field when guarded by him, per Synergy.
With the way smaller guards get picked on defensively, he knows it’s something he’ll have to constantly work on.
“Really just guarding, that’s the biggest thing that I’m working on,” Holloway said. “To just be resistant on defense. Stop people from getting by me, attack shots, just try to make it hard on the offensive end. That’s just been the biggest thing I’ve been working on, so far.”
Per EvanMiya, when the two man lineup of Holloway and Denver Jones is on the court, the duo is averaging 116.7 points per 100 possessions while allowing just 73.5.
Through six games, the connection between the two shooters has been immaculate.
“It’s great,” Holloway said. “That’s my roommate. We have a special connection I would say. We have a similar game, he’s just a little bit bigger than me. I know how he likes to score. It’s been good.”
Overall, since day one, it’s been evident to coaches and his teammates that Holloway is a special talent.
“Unbelievable player,” Jones said. “In my other interviews I'm always talking highly of Aden. Great player, great person. He inspires me to get in the gym and work even harder than I do. He's really going to be the one.”
