MSU may have found its next freshman phenom
In the 2024-25 season, a freshman named Jase Richardson surprised many and ended up being the Spartans best offensive player. In the 2025-26 season, it should not be a surprise when another freshman turns out to be a big-time scorer for Tom Izzo. At least that is what can be deduced from his performance in a recent all-star game with many of the top recruits in the current cycle.
This past weekend, at the Iverson Classic in Hampton, Virginia, a who’s-who of the top recruits in the 2025 class gathered for a chance to have one more game as high school players before they officially become college athletes. And it was a chance for us fans to gauge where these young men stack up against their peers, in hopes that the ones coming to our school can stand out. For Michigan State faithful, it was a good day.
Having to only travel across one state line, Maryland native Cam Ward, a 4-star power forward committed to be a Spartan, was one of those standout players. In his team’s 164-151 win (I guess defense was not the focus of the day), Cam was second on his team in scoring and was a rebound away from a double-double. For the game, he had 23 points on 11-14 shooting, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal. This was in 23:48 of playing time, so basically a point a minute.
Comparing him to some of the other players in this game, Ward was up there with the best of them. His teammate, Arkansas commit Darius Acuff, who was named the MVP of the game, was the only one of Ward’s teammates to outscore him, going for 32 points and 11 assists. Acuff is a point guard, so he had the ball in his hands as much as he wanted, as evidenced by his game-high 23 shot attempts.
On the other team, three players had a higher scoring output than Ward. Kiyan Anthony, son of Carmelo who is also going to Syracuse, had 25 points. Kingston Flemings, who will play for Houston, dropped 26. And Jamarion Batemon, an Iowa State commit, led his team with 27.
In terms of rebounding, Ward was third in the game with his nine, topped by a couple of his teammates who had double-digit outputs on the glass. No one on the other team had more than seven boards.
It was a good sign of things to come for Ward as he moves up to the college game. We should not be surprised if he is ready to step in on day one and be a contributor on next year’s team.