MSU's Cam Ward Working to Earn Tom Izzo’s Green Light
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HOLT, Mich. --- There are a lot of interesting sights each day the Moneyball Pro-Am is held.
Twelve Michigan State players get the freedom to try out some new stuff in front of fans without any serious pressure to figure it all out at once. Freshman Carlos Medlock Jr. and redshirt sophomore Jesse McCulloch have both tried out sky hooks, for example. One of the most common sights, though, has been rising sophomore Cam Ward testing out his three-point shot.
Ward's Development
The sight of Ward launching threes is the type of thing that makes someone do a double-take. If Tom Izzo were to release his "jump shot power rankings" at the end of last season, Ward would probably be near or at the very bottom.
Ward attempted just two threes during his freshman season, missing both, and he shot just 51.0% at the free-throw line. His range last season was basically just inside the paint. "This is why I'm appreciative of Moneyball," Ward told Spartan Nation on Thursday.
"You get to do it in live play. You're not playing against, like, slouches. These guys are college guys; like D-II, D-III, JUCO guys; some overseas pros are back. You're actually playing against kind of the same level, if not better, competition sometimes, and especially playing against your teammates... It's just easy to work on it when it's live."
Going from being somebody who only really shoots at the rim to someone with the green light to shoot threes would be a massive leap for Ward. This feels like the type of project that might not bear fruit right away during the 2026-27 season, besides one shot every once in a while, but Ward shooting threes somewhat regularly at some point in his time at MSU doesn't feel unrealistic at all.
Ward has proven that he can make them a little bit. He made seven three-pointers (yes, seven) back on Tuesday during a 47-point performance against Team BLT. Moneyball doesn't record how many attempts it took, but "Cam Ward made seven threes in a game" is not a sentence I thought I'd ever hear in any serious context.
"You make a couple, you keep shooting them," Ward also said. "You kind of get happy and things of that nature. It's been a process, for sure. It's still going to be a good process to maintain during the season and gain Coach [Izzo]'s confidence, things of that nature, but I think I'm on the right path as far as that aspect of the game goes."
Kohler Leaving Behind a 'Blueprint'
Ward's is also modeling his process a bit like what Jaxon Kohler did with the Spartans. Kohler was originally a complete non-shooter at MSU, not making a three-pointer during his first two seasons at Michigan State and also going just 4-of-15 (26.7%) on free throws.
Kohler's solution was to get in the gym and start shooting. He would shoot hundreds of shots a day, reaching the top of the national leaderboard for shot attempts on the software MSU uses to track practice shots.
It didn't all come in one season. Kohler took about one or two threes per game as a junior, but made them at a fairly effective 37.3% clip. Another offseason in the gym raised it to another level. Kohler attempted the most threes on the team last season (149), and he made 38.9% of them --- that was good for 58 makes, also the most on the Spartans.
"Jaxon's insane," Ward said about Kohler's development there. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone do what Jaxon does, but he gave me the blueprint for it [developing a three-point shot]. I have been following a little bit of what Jaxon does, as far as how he got his shot so good.
"I'm definitely going to probably start to ramp it up a little bit and enhance it now, because it's getting closer to that time of the back end of the summer. That's something important that I'm going to kind of start doing and honing in the next couple of weeks, as far as practice goes."
Ward says that he doesn't really have that "green light" from Izzo and the staff to take some in-game threes yet. Part of that equation may come down to how much improvement he shows at the free-throw line. Ward has hope that he can get it soon, though.
"I'm still in the process of obtaining it [the 'green light']," he said. "But if I shoot it well enough in practice and show Coach I can really make them, he'll give me a good attitude. That's the goal."
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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