Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from comeback win at Iowa

2. Junior Nick Ward is much more mature than sophomore Nick Ward

When Nick Ward declared for the NBA draft, no one was truly surprised. He had seemed off in the distance all year long and his relationship with head coach Tom Izzo wasn’t the strongest. When he decided to come back, everyone was hoping for a more polished player and mature individual.

It turned out that Ward was suffering through some personal events such as his mother being hospitalized to the point where no one knew if she was going to make it. He did his best to hide the emotions, but you could tell it was wearing on him all sophomore year long.

Now that things are back to normal — by all accounts — with his family, Ward seems to have a stress-free demeanor and it has done nothing but work wonders for his game.

If you took last year’s version of Ward and compared it to this year’s, it’s like night and day. A year ago following a zero-point performance against a ranked team in which he only played 14 minutes, you’d see him almost shut down and let that carry over into the next game or two. This year? He shrugged it off, got back to work, turned down offered time off from Izzo and scored 21 points with 10 rebounds against the Hawkeyes.

Oh yeah, and he’s adding a mid-range jumper to his game that’s looking better by the game. He finished 7-for-10 from the field and 7-for-7 from the line — another improved area of his game. He’s 28 for his last 32 from the line.

This kid has improved tenfold in just about every aspect of his game, most notably his maturity level.