Michigan State Basketball: What can we expect from Nick Ward’s return?

Nick Ward was injured with a hairline fracture against Ohio State on Feb. 17 and has been out since but what does his return mean for Michigan State basketball?

Nick Ward is a beast down low. He’s the second leading scorer for Michigan State at 15.1 points and second leading rebounder with 6.7 before he was injured. He was a force to be reckoned with and was getting double-teamed in most games.

If we was not getting double-teamed then he was probably scoring an easy bucket. With his return, it opens up the Spartans’ offense so much more as it stretches the defense out even more than it was before. Ward when on the floor makes his teammates better.

How, you ask? He does not necessarily give them a great pass while they are cutting like Cassius Winston does. He just gets the ball and puts it in the bucket. However, when Ward is on the floor, more often than not, he is getting help side defense tossed on him which in return gives the Spartans an open man. All Ward has to do is get a good pass back out and the rest of the Spartans will swing the ball around to the open scorer and get an open three.

The defense will fall back to their man and all it takes it one quick swing back down to Ward while he is not getting doubled-teamed. This is something that Xavier Tillman has not quite been able to do while he has been on the floor.

Tillman is another guy this return helps as it will give him much-needed rest. This injury helped Tillman out to grow and also become a monster down low. Since Ward’s injury, he has averaged 14 points per game and has been great on defense, especially with those bigs who like to sneak out and take a deep three once in a while — he does not allow this.

With this return, Tom Izzo will be able to have both Ward and Tillman in the game at the same time every once in a while so they have a massive guy down low on the block and they have another big who is able to guard the perimeter — it will make the Spartan defense even better than what it was before.

This also helps Winston out. When Ward is in the game, it takes the eyes off of Winston just a little bit. Do not get me wrong, the defense will still swarm Winston when they can, but with Ward down low, they will have to watch out for him, too. This will allow Cassius to come off screens and hopefully get more open looks from deep because these defenses will have to keep their eye out for Ward.

While Ward will bring major positives when he returns, he will still have some adjusting to do. He said in a press conference that he is excited about coming back and was able to find a brace to wear on his hand to help protect his hand from further injury. He said it will not impact his game but he will still need to adjust with playing against Big Ten foes with this on. The junior will also need to get back into game ready form of condition.

Ward was one of the best runners on the floor when it comes to transition buckets. However, he has not been playing in games for the past few weeks and will need to get in game shape. This will not take long but he will need to work on his conditioning to get back to being the best big man runner on the floor so MSU can get those fast break points once again.

All in all, this return comes at the best time for the Spartans. He will be able to play in at least one game, probably two if not three, getting them to the championship game to get his form and game time conditioning back before the Big Dance starts. If he comes back hungry for buckets and is playing at 100 percent, it will enhance the chances of the Spartans getting back to the Final Four this year.