Michigan State Basketball: Nick Ward has tall task against Miami’s size
By Adam Zdroik
Michigan State basketball fans know that Nick Ward needs to be on the floor for the offense to work, but can the big man have success against Miami?
The path for a Michigan State victory in any NCAA tournament game goes through Nick Ward. When the big man plays, he usually fills up the stat sheet and at the minimum gives the Spartans someone to throw to in the post. Miles Bridges is plenty important, but without a presence in the paint, this team won’t make it past Miami.
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And so, the first-round game will come down to just how well the Hurricanes defend Ward in the post. What doesn’t help is that Miami has three players that are as tall or taller than Ward and they all see playing time. Kamari Murphy will be matched up with him the most, but let’s first touch on 6-foot-10 Ebuka Izundu and 6-foot-11 Dewan Huell. Izundu has had some big games this season, but mainly against bigger teams. He’ll likely be in the lineup when Kenny Goins is on the floor and those two are mainly out there to get rebounds. Izundu has two points in the last four games while averaging a little over 12 minutes per game.
Huell is kind of in the same boat as his playing time has been greatly reduced in recent games. Huell’s situation is a bit more interesting as he’s a 20-year-old freshman and McDonald’s All-American (played on same team as Josh Langford). He started the season as a major player, but has closed it almost as a non-factor, barely averaging 10 minutes per game in his last five appearances while scoring nine points total. To go along with that, he picked up an ankle injury and missed the first ACC Tournament game against Syracuse before coming in for 11 minutes in the North Carolina loss.
There’s a lot of uncertainty in this area for the Hurricanes because throughout the year, Murphy played a lot with Huell and Idunzu. If they revert back to that strategy, that would mean Huell or even Murphy guards Miles Bridges. And if Tom Izzo ever brings out the lineup of Kenny Goins and Kyle Ahrens in the frontcourt, Spartan fans don’t want to know what will happen.
But getting back to Ward, he could see any number of those guys defend him in the post in this game. While Ward has girth on them all, he’s also giving up a couple inches in height and arm length. For the most part, Ward has had success against almost every defender this season outside of Isaac Haas and Trevor Thompson. Other than that, he’s been fairly consistent as long as he gets playing time.
As for the Hurricanes, they haven’t really played a big man this good in the post all season. Ward can be compared to the likes of Florida’s John Egbunu, Wake Forest’s John Collins or Duke’s Amile Jefferson, but he is far from the same player as those guys, who all have a different game with more athleticism. And even when teams have big guys similar to Ward like N.C. State with Abdul-Malik Abu, the Wolfpack have a much different team, so it’s hard to take those matchups fully into account.
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While it’s hard to predict what will happen, the fact is that Ward has a size (weight) advantage on all three of Miami’s bigs. If Ward has success early against Murphy, they’ll likely double team him plenty as long as Jim Larranaga and company did their research. And even if Ward has a good game, that doesn’t mean the Spartans are guaranteed a victory, but they’ll at least remain competitive. And if Murphy, Huell and Izundu win on the glass and don’t let Ward do what he does best, then Michigan State is going to be in tons of trouble and there will be plenty of Matt McQuaid highlights getting rejected as he goes up for an off-balanced layup.