According to SB Nation Indiana and nwi.com, All-Horizon League first-team guard Brandon Wood, who has already declared for the NBA draft, is considering his options, which include going to Michigan State for one year.
Wood is set to graduate from Valparaiso in May, but still has a year of eligibility left. He could return to Valpo or he could take advantage of an NCAA rule that allows student athletes who have graduated to gain immediate eligibility at another school, provided that school has a graduate program not available at his original school. He is reportedly considering both Purdue and MSU and has had conversations with Tom Izzo and Draymond Green. He could also stay in the for the NBA draft, so there is no shortage of options for him.
Wood averaged 16.7 points per game on a .523/.363/.664 (2pt/3pt/FT) shooting line to go along with 4.3 rebounds 3.1 assists and 1.8 steals. He was named to the First Team All-Horizon League at the end of February and led the Crusaders to a final record of 23-12, including a first round loss to Iona in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament.
According to the nwi.com article, Wood is focused on the draft right now with other options considered a "fallback". But with the 6'2" 190# Wood not on many draft radar screens at the moment (he does not have a profile on DraftExpress.com, but his stats are there) it seems likely he'll be giving those fallback options greater scrutiny as the May 8th deadline for withdrawing from the draft approaches. He has not yet hired an agent, which is the point of no return.
Michigan State technically has two scholarship spots to play with for 2011-12 after the transfers of Korie Lucious and Garrick Sherman. One is presumably committed to Austin Thornton, so Izzo could use the other on Wood and still have a spot left in the 2012 class (Sherman's final year). Wood could conceivably be a good fit for the situation. He started at Southern Illinois before going to community college for a year and then transferring to Valparaiso. That he will already have graduated before any move to MSU would set aside any of the usual academic concerns about JUCO transfers. We'll provide updates to this story as they become available.