Tag: Brandon Wood

Thad Matta shares his praise of MSU basketball HC Tom Izzo

A longtime college basketball coach sang his praises for Tom Izzo in a recent interview:

Thad Matta has been a mainstay in college basketball, and in particularly the Big Ten, patrolling the bench at Ohio State from 2004-2017. Now, he is back in college basketball with Butler.

Matta is no stranger to Tom Izzo and on a recent podcast with former Spartan Brandon Wood, he sang his praises for Coach Izzo.

Watch the clip via X or see the full interaction with Wood via YouTube by clicking here.

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Pair of former Spartans to play for Team HeartFIRE in upcoming TBT event

A pair of former Michigan State Spartans will be playing for Team HeartFIRE in the upcoming TBT event that begins next month.

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A pair of former Michigan State Spartans will be playing for Team HeartFIRE in the upcoming TBT event that begins next month.

Branden Dawson and Brandon Wood will both be members of Team HeartFIRE. The squad also includes three players from Baylor and will be coached by Homer Drew.

Team HeartFire is listed as a No. 11 seed and will begin play in the TBT on July 24. Games throughout the event will be televised on ESPN.

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Former MSU Basketball Forward Nick Ward signs with Team Big X for The Basketball Tournament

Former Michigan State Basketball Forward Nick Ward signed with Team Big X and is participating in The Basketball Tournament this summer!

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The Basketball Tournament is a thrilling 5-on-5, winner takes all tournament for a grand prize of $2 million. Today, we learned former Michigan State basketball Forward Nick Ward signed with the Big Ten alumni squad, Team Big X.

Ward joins Ohio State alumni Andrew Dakich and Andre & Kaleb Wesson on Team Big X.

Ward scored a remarkable 1,350 career points during his three-year tenure at Michigan State. He was also a part of the memorable 2019 Final Four run. Last season, he played for the Atlanta Hawks G-League affiliate team, the College Park Skyhawks, averaging 13.2 points per game.

Nick Ward is not the only former Spartan in this tournament. Branden Dawson & Brandon Wood both joined Team Heartfire less than 10 days ago. Also, former MSU guards Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers both signed with Team Detroit earlier this month.

Yesterday, Myron Medcalf of ESPN reported that The Basketball Tournament is set still set for July.

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Branden Dawson and Brandon Wood join Team Heartfire for The Basketball Tournament

Dawson and Wood make four former Michigan State players to join the summer tournament.

The Basketball Tournament is filling up with Michigan State alums.

After Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers joined Team Detroit last week, former Spartans Branden Dawson and Brandon Wood have signed with Team Heartfire for The Basketball Tournament.

Dawson played for Michigan State from 2011-2015, helping the Spartans advance to the 2015 Final Four. He was a second-round pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. He played for Israeli basketball club Bnei Herzliya in 2019.

Wood joined MSU as a graduate transfer for one season in 2012. He currently plays professionally for Libertadores de Querétaro in Mexico.

The Basketball Tournament is an open-application 64-team single-elimination tournament where teams compete for a $2 million winner-take-all grand prize. It is a really cool display of former collegiate stars and professional players outside of the NBA and is high level basketball. The winner of the 2019 TBT–Carmen’s Crew–was made up mostly of former Ohio State basketball players including Aaron Craft, William Buford, and player/coach Jared Sullinger.

TBT 2020 is scheduled to begin at the end of July, but that–along with most every sporting event–is certainly subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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