TULSA, Okla. -- It wasn't completely abnormal, as far as freshmen are concerned.
But when Nick Ward rolled into East Lansing at more than 260 pounds this summer, and struggled to get up and down the floor in pickup games, the journey ahead seemed awfully long.
"He couldn't take his shirt off," Miles Bridges quips. "No, I'm just playing."
Point taken, though, right?
Ward's potential has always been there. A 6-foot-8 lefty with soft hands and quick feet, Ward -- when he's right -- is one of the most efficient big men in the country.