Brandon Wood to play on an aircraft carrier?

[valpospartan]

While getting our butt kicked 65-38 or so that year

Yes, and at that, we were the only team to hold Michigan St. under 70 points on their way to the National Championship.

Key words here are "National Championship".

[valpospartan]

An exerpt from an article in the Detroit Free Press, about MSU's beatdown of OSU (Tom Izzo had invited Brandon into his office last week for a 90 min. chat about basketball and life and how best to get everything out of both) :
The Spartans don't get the lead in the first place, however, without the defensive effort of Wood, who hounded Ohio State's best shooter, William Buford, into a 2-for-12 night.

Izzo said Wood made the commitment in East Lansing during their long talk last week.

"The greatest thing in coaching or parenting is when you give a kid a challenge and he doesn't sulk," Izzo said. "I love when people reach down and meet challenges."

He could say the same thing of his entire team.

[agibson]

Brandon Wood?  Turns out that, if he gets to a conference tournament championship game?  He can play a little bit of basketball.

[valpospartan]

Brandon Wood?  Turns out that, if he gets to a conference tournament championship game?  He can play a little bit of basketball.

He not only got to a conference tournament game, he scored 21
in M.S.U's victory over OSU.

[lowposter]

Congradulations BW...just watched him snip a bit of net.  Quite a year for the young man.  That was quite a game today.

Coach Izzo does a great job at MSU.  Let's hope the Spartans make a big run in the NCAA's along with Purdue and Detroit.

lowposter

[vuweathernerd]

watching bwood pile it onto ohio state was purely awesome. hope to see him light it up in the dance.

[valpotx]

I watched as well, and he was definitely on today.  Good game, and best of luck to him in the tournament.

[wh]

Great game by Brandon - helped earn MSU a #1 seed.  Good luck to BW in the tournament!

[agibson]

Brandon Wood?  Turns out that, if he gets to a conference tournament championship game?  He can play a little bit of basketball.

Game-high 21 points on 4-8 shooting from beyond the arc (8-14 overall).  And a couple of assists.  All-tournament team.  Not bad!

From the press release:

Wood's dramatic turnaround in the six months since his transfer from Valparaiso, and the last few weeks in particular, has been a key development. Not known for playing defense in the Horizon League, according to Green, Wood's transformation into a lock-down defender has been nothing short of remarkable.

Buckeye guard William Buford, who sunk MSU with 23 points a week earlier, had just 11 this time, and only one point after halftime thanks in large part to Wood's defense.

"Coach has put me in a good situation, and Draymond believed in me and my team believed in me," Wood said. "They just wanted me to stay aggressive on offense and play as good defense as I can. What I've been trying to take pride on is actually wanting to play defense because it's really a mindset to play defense, and I'm started to enjoy it.

"I think that's what made me successful."

And, a chance to beat up on Long Island (?) in the opening round.  Followed by Memphis/St. Louis, and then e.g. Louisville.

[lowposter]

Kinda nice having more than one pony in the race (Robbie, Brandon, VU in NIT).  It would have been much better for VU to have been in the NCAA, but this has been a great transition season. 

lowposter

[bbtds]

And so ends the aircraft carrier type career of BWood.

And the B1G is now down to 2. Badgers and Spartans get the big bounce.

Good luck, Brandon! You will be successful at whatever you decide to do. But I wouldn't suggest teaching right now.

[okinawatyphoon]

Brandon was a stud tonight!

[sectionee]

Minus that airball

[lowposter]

BW certainly had a good year.  It worked out well for all parties involved. 

He can finish up that Masters Degree, work on his game and hopefully make a couple $$$ playing professional.

lowposter

[valpospartan]

And so ends the aircraft carrier type career of BWood.

And the B1G is now down to 2. Badgers and Spartans get the big bounce.

Good luck, Brandon! You will be successful at whatever you decide to do. But I wouldn't suggest teaching right now.

[KL31NY]

B-Wood back in the news, giving us some "post-aircraft carrier" info. Found him in a lengthy USA Today article about the grad student transfer exception. Here's the link to the article http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/story/2012-04-26/college-basketball-transfers-brandon-wood-bo-ryan/54557224/1, as well as his piece of the story if you'd prefer not to wade through the whole thing:

The Big Ten has dominated this trend in basketball, too. Michigan State reached the Sweet 16 with Valparaiso transfer Brandon Wood as its third-leading scorer. Illinois had Sam Maniscalco, a Bradley transfer, who contributed 6.1 points a game. Northwestern recently acquired Louisville senior Jared Swopshire, who left because the Cardinals didn't have an available scholarship. Swopshire will be eligible to play in 2012-13 as a graduate student.

Wood explained the process, saying once he found out about the graduate student exemption, it opened up a new recruiting period for him. He chose Michigan State over Purdue and Tennessee to work on his defensive skills under coach Tom Izzo's guidance. Wood enrolled in MSU's advertising program after two years at Valparaiso (which was preceded by stops at Southern Illinois and Highland Community College in Illinois).

"I did everything my first four years that each school asked me to do on and off the court," Wood said. "I feel like once I graduated ... If I had the opportunity to transfer and better my family and myself on and off the court by networking, meeting a whole different group of people, then that's what I feel like I needed to do.

"Sometimes, in life you have to make selfish decisions. ... I don't think it's a bad rule. If players handle their business and do what they have to do in the classroom and have the opportunity to do this, take advantage of this rule to better themselves, then I think it's something people should look into doing."

On a more positive note, he shared an email he received in 2010 from a talent evaluator w/ his Twitter followers. Stated he was not, and probably would not ever be, ready to play in the NBA. I enjoyed still seeing his motivation to play ball at the highest level and I'm looking forward to seeing where he ends up in a couple months.

[valpotx]

Good luck to him in his pursuit, but I think he will have to try the Ron Howard approach to attempting the NBA try.  I doubt he is viewed as one of the 60 best players to get drafted in going against college and international players, so it would have to be the D-League or undrafted free agent route.

[vu72]

Brandon has signed with an agent.  Don't know about his NBA prospects but Brandon and his work ethic are things you probably shouldn't bet against.

[lowposter]

I was a little cynical of this move a year ago, but it really worked out for all parties involved.  BW had one heck of a year...didnt he?  These life experiences are outstanding for him.  Interesting evaluation regarding his NBA prospects, but I wouldnt make the mistake of underestimating him.  His point of playing by the rules is spot on.  He followed rules, worked hard, graduated and took advantage of what was legally offered.

Let's take another look at this...his exposure to the MSU program gives him great leverage down the road in his life when the basketball stops bouncing.  Being an MSU grad and basketball player will give him opportunities he might not have received at VU.

MSU received a solid player and VU did quite nicely in the "player to be named later" deal.  Win, win, win.  Everyone should be content and happy.

Great season BW and work hard.

lowposter

[milldew72]

Just heard on Detroit radio that BWood got arrested in Chicago this weekend for slapping a woman after a party.

http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2012/04/former_michigan_state_basketba.html

[LaPorteAveApostle]

nicely done...just a little faster than me.


so much for the draft.

[VULB#62]

Jeez! What goes through 23 year old minds (at 3:30AM)?

[covufan]

Jeez! What goes through 23 year old minds (at 3:30AM)?

I know that I did my best thinking at 3:30 AM on Friday and Saturday nights! 

[vu72]

Hopefully this is all a big mistake caused by a jealous women.  If not it could be tragic for Brandon as teams might shy away from him.

[valpopal]

As we all know: "Nothing good ever happens after 2 a.m."

Or another version: "The only thing you can find after 2 a.m. is a bad reputation."