Tom Izzo has been there before. Michigan State needed a strong showing Big Ten tournament in 2011 to keep Izzo’s NCAA tournament streak alive. The Spartans went to Indianapolis and won a pair of games, including one over then top-10 Purdue, to squeak into the 68-team field.
Source: Detroit Free Press
Nick Ward wasn’t watching television Monday afternoon. His cell phone blew up with text messages. That’s how the Michigan State forward learned he didn’t make the Big Ten All-Freshman team, which was announced on Big Ten Network. So did he think he deserved to be among the five best rookies in the conference? “Yeah,” Ward said today, flashing his eyebrows as his smile grew, “I do.”
Source: Detroit Free Press
The biggest snub of Monday night’s Big Ten awards show was Michigan State freshman Nick Ward. Despite clearly being one of the conference’s top newcomers, he was not included on the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team, which is voted on by the league’s coaches. Instead, Freshman of the Year Miles Bridges was joined by Penn State’s Tony Carr, Minnesota’s Amir Coffey and Iowa teammates Jordan Bohannon and Tyler Cook.
Source: Spartan Tailgate
Michigan State ended the regular season Saturday with a loss to Maryland, and like most games this season, it was the MSU freshmen leading the way. Nick Ward had a huge second half on the way to scoring 22 points and grabbing a season-high 16 rebounds, while Miles Bridges scored 18 points to go with eight rebounds. Cassius Winston scored eight points and dished out five assists, and though Joshua Langford struggled, the three best players on the floor for the Spartans were once again freshmen.
Source: Spartan Tailgate
As Michigan State entered Wednesday night’s matchup with Illinois, it was planning to rely heavily on freshman Nick Ward, who was coming off his best week of the season.
Source: Detroit News
The ball found its way to Nick Ward in the paint in Sunday’s critical, waning moments, like it had almost all afternoon. Wisconsin’s Zak Showalter had no other option than to wrap up Michigan State’s big man under the basket. His hard foul had minimal impact as Ward ripped through his grasp for a lay-up as the whistle sounded.
Source: Detroit Free Press
Nick Ward has been named Big Ten Player of the Week as well as Big Ten Freshman of the Week, as announced by the conference office on Monday. Ward averaged 21.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg and shot .680 from the field in leading the Spartans to wins over Nebraska and No. 16 Wisconsin.
Sam and Rod are back to revel in yet another masterful Tom Izzo coaching job. We break down the huge home win against Wisconsin, a commanding victory over Nebraska earlier in the week, and then look ahead to road dates with Illinois and Maryland to close out the regular season.
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The extent to with Nick Ward is the beast of his own burdens was on full display about six weeks ago. On a Saturday afternoon at Ohio State, the Michigan State freshman vanished in a game played just 15 miles from his hometown. Much of the day was spent on the bench, laced with foul trouble, out of view from family and friends.
Source: MLive
The tradition called for Senior Day, and it ended with a misty-eyed, sentimental touch at the Breslin Center, as senior guard Eron Harris checked in with 11 seconds left — his right leg still immobilized after suffering a season-ending knee injury a week ago — to kiss the Spartan logo at center court goodbye. But the urgency called for something else Sunday.
Source: Detroit News
Under the home crowd, MSU men’s basketball experienced their ninth new lineup against Nebraska, the latest swap due to the hole left by injured fifth-year senior guard Eron Harris. Now that Harris is gone for the season, head coach Tom Izzo required his team to raise its level of play — and the freshman class appeared to take that to heart.
Source: The State News
It was that kind of night for Michigan State’s celebrated freshman class. Bridges and Ward both scored 20 points, while an aggressive Langford finished with a season-high 17. Winston scored only seven points, but he dished out eight assists and for the first time all year didn’t turn the ball over once. Neither did Ward, as the Spartans recorded their lowest turnover total (9) of the season.
Source: Spartan Tailgate
Hear freshman Nick Ward’s story and take a trip back to the late 1940’s when former head coach Gus Ganakas first arrived on campus in East Lansing.
One of the undertones of this tumultuous Michigan State basketball season has been freshman big man Nick Ward. Lost in the talk of future lottery-pick Miles Bridges, Ward’s play out of the gate proved essential to the Spartans’ success. Over time, the whispers about Ward have grown. Now, he’s a known threat on a possible tournament team. Of course, when one sees a freshman mesh this well on a high-level team in his first year on campus, it begs the question: Is Ward going to be a good NBA player?
Source: Detroit Free Press
Quietly, Nick Ward has quieted many of the moving parts in his free-throw motion. The results have been pretty loud – his extra work is paying off. The freshman forward has gone 25-for-36 at the free-throw line over Michigan State’s last nine games, making 10 of 11 in the past three outings. “I’ve been working on it a lot, day and night,” Ward said after practice Thursday. “It’s a little more confidence. It’s my technique, being consistent at the line.”
Source: Detroit Free Press
There’s no litmus test for a young Big Ten forward these days quite like playing Purdue. The Boilermakers feature a national player of the year candidate in Caleb Swanigan, who plays alongside Isaac Haas, perhaps the most physical freak in the conference at 7-foot-2, 290 pounds. Together, they’re one of the most intimidating frontcourts in college hoops.
Source: MLive.com
When Nick Ward went back home to play against Ohio State last month, things didn’t go very well for the Michigan State freshman. The native of Gahanna, Ohio, just outside of Columbus, struggled to handle the moment and scored just nine points on 3-for-7 shooting while turning the ball over three times, including a costly one in the final minutes of Ohio State’s 72-67 victory.
Source: Detroit News
The Spartans’ top three lineups are playing 31.0 percent of the minutes. Heading into a home date with Ohio State (15-11, 5-8 Big Ten) on Tuesday night (9 p.m. TV: ESPN), over the last five games, MSU most prevalent lineup — by a slight margin — has been Tum Tum Nairn, Eron Harris, Joshua Langford Kenny Goins and Miles Bridges. It’s played 11.8 percent of MSU’s minutes. There have been varying forms of that lineup with Nick Ward, Cassius Winston, Matt McQuaid and Alvin Ellis III joining the rotation, but none have played more than 11 percent of the time together as a singular unit.
Source: How Tom Izzo’s shapeshifting rotations are unique, and not changing anytime soon | MLive.com
When Michigan State played at Ohio State about a month ago, it was one of the worst outings of Big Ten play for two MSU freshmen.Point guard Cassius Winston played only 11 minutes — the fewest he logged all year other than the season opener — and scored one point while going 0-for-3 from the field. Meanwhile, in a homecoming for Nick Ward, the Gahanna (Ohio) product played 18 minutes and scored nine points along with four rebounds, but he turned it over three times and head coach Tom Izzo wasn’t at all pleased with his big man’s focus.
Source: Spartan Tailgate
Saturday’s win over Iowa continued a strong surge for Nick Ward. And it started on the bench. The Michigan State freshman forward had 14 points, the fifth time in his last six games and 16th in the Spartans’ last 19 that Ward scored in double digits. Maybe his worst game in that stretch came at Ohio State on Jan. 15. Ward, who is from nearby Gahanna, Ohio, struggled in that 72-67 loss in Columbus.
Source: Detroit Free Press