City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
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The transition from high school to college has been known to be a difficult one for freshmen, especially big men. Young forwards often take a bit of time before settling into a rhythm and really contributing to the team.

This has not been the case for Fairleigh Dickinson freshman and Schalick HS (N.J.) alum Mike Holloway, who had a chance to play a bit closer to home than usual on Wednesday night.

Holloway, who is from Pittsgrove, N.J. which is just a little over 35 miles southeast of Philadelphia, played in front of family and friends to continue what has been a solid start to his college career.

The talented 6-foot-7 product has performed admirably thus far for the Knights, tallying seven points and four rebounds in a loss to Temple on Wednesday night, right around his season averages.

“For big guys it usually takes longer, for Mike it hasn’t,” Fairleigh Dickinson coach Greg Herenda said. “He is well beyond his years as a freshman, he is very mature as a young man and as a player.”

Holloway’s defensive awareness puts him a step ahead of the rest in terms of his development. While getting himself into early foul trouble, picking two fouls in the first nine minutes of the game against Temple, he adjusted his play and finished with only three fouls and was able to stay on the court for 26 minutes.

This mark was good enough to serve as his second-highest amount of minutes played on the season to date. He played for 32 minutes in a victory over Saint Peter's on Nov. 28.

“I kinda expected to get a lot of minutes [coming into the season],” Holloway said. “I didn’t think [Herenda] would throw me in the starting lineup, but now that I am in there, I feel as if I need to live up to not being a freshman, just being a player.”

Holloway has been one of the lone bright spots on the Fairleigh Dickinson season, coming into Wednesday night’s matchup with the Owls averaging 7.1 ppg along with 4.7 rpg in 19.7 mpg, starting in six of the Knights' first eight games.

This season as a whole has not been easy for the Knights. They opened up their season on the road at then-No. 9-ranked Villanova, who handed them a 91-54 drubbing. Things did not get any easier for the team as they played a fairly tough road schedule, including games at Delaware and now Temple.

Holloway did not really have a chance to work his way into the college game, opening up against Villanova, he kind-of was thrown directly into the fire.

“You just stay focused, keep working hard, try to get better every day and don’t go out there with a temper, go out there like a confident player, like an upperclassmen would do, and don’t play like a freshman,” Holloway said.

And while he struggled and only recorded two points and four rebounds in that game, he played considerably better in the Knights’ second game, a win over FDU-Florham in which he recorded 21 points and 9 rebounds.

Holloway’s play is starting to gain attention from more than just his coach. Temple forward Jaylen Bond had a front row seat to the play of the freshman.

“Him being a freshman, he has a strong body, so he’s going to be good as he gets older,” said Bond, a physical specimen himself at 6-7 and 235 pounds. “He was pretty strong down low, so we had to be smart, box him out and try to keep him off the glass.

Holloway’s next challenge will come in the form of Lafayette with only three games remaining on the non-conference schedule as the team prepares for Northeast Conference play.