Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from win over Southern Utah

EAST LANSING, MI - DECEMBER 9: Jaren Jackson Jr. #2 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates a made basket during the game against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at Breslin Center on December 9, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /

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EAST LANSING, MI – DECEMBER 9: Nick Ward #44 of the Michigan State Spartans handles the ball defended by Dre Marin #4 of the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at Breslin Center on December 9, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /

2. Nick Ward drama has been overblown

If we learned one thing from Saturday’s win over Southern Utah, it’s that the Nick Ward vs. Tom Izzo drama was completely blown out of proportion. Nowadays, any minor scuffle or lesson being taught by a head coach to a player gets magnified and blown out of proportion and Izzo admitted that’s what happened this past week.

The drama began during the Rutgers game when Ward was benched for all but one minute in the second half of a win. Izzo said he didn’t like Ward’s body language, so he took him out. That was that. The media took that story and ran with it.

Even after Saturday’s win over Southern Utah in which Ward finished with 21 minutes played which aided his 17-point, six-rebound and three-block performance, Izzo stated that the media was acting ridiculous following the Rutgers game and nothing serious happened.

Ward has gotten over the “benching” and Izzo went on to say that he was fine by the time he got on the plane. It’s time to get over the benching drama as Izzo has done this to multiple Spartan greats before. There truly is nothing behind this story.

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