Michigan State Holiday Wish List 2018: Wish No. 10 for Spartan fans

Michigan State’s 25 wishes list continues today and will run for the next week and a half. What is the No. 10 wish for all Spartan fans?

Here is wish No. 10 on our Michigan State fan wish list as we count down to wish No. 1.

Wish No. 10

Nick Ward, Joshua Langford and Cassius Winston all make All-Big Ten first-team this season.

Once again for those who are thinking this may be an unrealistic wish, please remember we are talking about actual wishes, not predictions that I feel will more than likely come true. As we move closer to Wish No. 1, expect the wishes to be more grandeur to in terms of wanting more than expecting. Now, here is why there is an actual legit chance of this wish becoming true.

The last and only time that there were three players from the same team selected to the All-Big Ten first-team in men’s basketball was for the 2004-05 season when Illinois had Dee Brown, Luther Head and Deron Williams earning the honors.

A precedent has been set so it’s not impossible for it to happen again. Michigan State came close during the 1998-99 and 1999-00 seasons when both Morris Peterson and Mateen Cleaves were named first-team All-Big Ten. There is a slight and even remote possibility of Ward, Winston and Langford earning first-team honors. However, there are certain reasons to why all three can do just that by the end of this season.

For the 2017-18 All-Big Ten team as selected by media, both Winston and Ward were selected for third-team All-Big Ten; Langford did not earn All-Big Ten honors last season. However, all three have played significant minutes and started most of the time since their freshman year. They all have improved and all three can score and do I dare call them the “Big 3” for Michigan State and even for the Big Ten this season? Maybe, we shall see.

Langford has gone from scoring 6.9 to 11.7 to 16.7 points per game. His rebounds and assists per game have increased each season. He has his highest field goal percentage as well as 3-point percentage since he has been a Spartan this season. He is also playing over 30 minutes per game for the first time this season.

Winston, like Langford, is averaging over 30 minutes per game for the first time since he has been a Spartan. His scoring has gone up each season from 6.7 to 12.6 to now 16.1 points per game. His assists per game have also gone up each season as well from 5.2 to 6.9 to now 7.5. Winston is averaging over a steal per game for the first time as well.

Ward in his freshman and sophomore seasons averaged between 12 and 13 points a game and averaged just under seven rebounds per game. Also in his first two seasons as a Spartan, his field goal percentage was approximately 62 percent. As a junior, he’s averaging more points per game at 15.6 and averaging an assist per game. Most notably, this is the first season he’s averaging more than 20 minutes a game.

This season’s Michigan State team needs to have a dominant season like Illinois’ 2004-05 campaign to have any hope of getting three Spartans on the All-Big Ten first-team. That may mean winning the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles.

Langford, Winston, and Ward have to continue to grow and become more and more productive on the court. They also need to come up big in important games and dominant their Big Ten counterparts as much as possible.

I put the probability of Wish No. 10 on our wish list of coming true at 15 percent. Even though there is a chance of this happening, it’s doubtful that it will come true. However, Winston, Ward and Langford are all capable of having an outstanding productive season. All three must stay healthy and they must lead Michigan State to back to back Big Ten titles to get the recognize that they deserve with an incredible individual season. This wish happening may not be likely but it does have a chance of coming true.