Nick Ward sets Vancouver Bandits franchise scoring record
![Michigan State Nick Ward (44) walks off the court after the Spartans lost the Final Four to Texas Tech at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday, April 06, 2019.
Ust Jh3 6469 Michigan State Nick Ward (44) walks off the court after the Spartans lost the Final Four to Texas Tech at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday, April 06, 2019.
Ust Jh3 6469](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4434,h_2494,x_0,y_48/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/137/01j3skprgz9r69fqaxxw.jpg)
Remember when Michigan State basketball was a big man factory? You'd only have to go back to right before COVID hit when Nick Ward and Xavier Tillman were patrolling the paint for the Spartans and both seem to be having a decent amount of success in the professional ranks.
Tillman just won an NBA title with the Boston Celtics while Ward just broke a franchise record in Canada with the Vancouver Bandits.
In fact, Ward just became Vancouver's all-time leading scorer and he also happens to be the franchise's all-time leading rebounder.
Standing on business. 😤 🦊@IamNickWard has become the all-time leading scorer in franchise history.#LikeABandit pic.twitter.com/z14SFljjsK
— Vancouver Bandits (@vancitybandits) July 26, 2024
While the Bandits' franchise is rather young and it only took Ward less than three seasons to break the all-time scoring record, it's still impressive that he was able to do this in that amount of time. The Bandits have been around since 2018 so there haven't been many elite scorers to come through the franchise, but Ward has been able to average 17-plus points in each of his three seasons, leading to this all-time scoring record.
On top of that, I mentioned he's also the all-time leading rebounder in Bandits franchise history and he's only going to keep building on these records.
It's good to see Ward having some success in international hoops much like Cassius Winston, Marcus Bingham Jr., and Travis Trice are having. All of these guys have made headlines recently for either signing new contracts overseas (Cassius and Bingham) or winning league MVPs (Trice).
Ward looks to be the latest to make a name for himself outside of the United States and while this may not be the same as his dream of playing in the NBA, he clearly still loves the game.
Does this make anyone else miss having a quality big?