To keep it on track, I think it'll be fun to have a year where the team is good, but without the weird pressures of last year.
I'm also really excited to see what Nick Ward can do. He draws the ire, and he plays an outdated style, that really hurt MSU defensively at times last year, but I'm hopeful that he's ready to take a big step forward. The way Izzo's system is, typically guys bigs don't contribute until their junior year, but Ward has contributed as an underclassman at a level MSU hasn't had since probably Paul Davis, 15 years ago.
For comparison purposes, Freshman/Sophomroe averages of some of the other good 4/5s in the past decade for MSU, and how quickly we forget how little they did in their first two years on campus
Payne: 5.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 13.5 mpg
Costello: 2.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 10.4 mpg
Nix: 2.5 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 8.0 mpg
Roe: 6.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 19.3 mpg
Ward is at 13.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg and 19.4 mpg
Has basketball changed enough that it won't matter, and his ceiling is what it is due to body type. That you have to be a 7 footer to get away with playing the way he does? Possibly. But I'm excited to hopefully find out not.