Tulsa a 'homecoming' for Michigan State's Matt McQuaid
Rob McQuaid’s phone started buzzing the second he turned his phone on.
His wife Karen’s phone started beeping, too.
The couple had just landed at the Dallas airport after a weekend in Washington, D.C., watching their son, Michigan State sophomore Matt McQuaid, at the Big Ten basketball tournament. They knew it was selection Sunday, but couldn’t help but wonder why they were receiving a barrage of text messages.
It could only be one of two things, Rob thought: MSU either didn’t make the NCAA tournament or the Spartans were heading to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the opening round, just four-plus hours from their Texas home.
Luckily for the McQuaids, it was the latter.
“It was a bombardment,” Rob McQuaid joked about the number of messages he received. “Everyone was really excited. And they wanted tickets.”
Duncanville, Texas, is a town of less than 40,000 located 13 miles southwest of Dallas. It’s the hometown of NFL legend “Mean” Joe Greene and basketball stars Greg Ostertag and Perry Jones. Duncanville loves its sports.
They also love their native sons.
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Friends, family and former coaches will make the 270-mile trip north from the Dallas suburbs, where McQuaid was a four-star recruit at Duncanville High School in 2015. In his two seasons at MSU, McQuaid hasn’t had the opportunity to play in the Lone Star State. In fact, the closest the Spartans have come is St. Louis, Missouri, where they were upset by Middle Tennessee State in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA tournament.
That was still a 10-hour drive for Rob and Karen.
“We are really excited, because it’s close and he will have a lot of people there to support him,” Karen McQuaid said of the BOK Center, where the Spartans will take on the University of Miami tonight at approximately 9:15 EST. “It’s really special. Our whole family has not been able to watch a game together.”
Andrea McQuaid knows what it is like to play sports far away from home. Matt’s older sister was a volleyball player at the University of Alabama and spent two years playing in Europe. With her busy schedule and the distance, she has only been to Midnight Madness, the preseason spectacle in East Lansing.
Friday will be the first time she has seen her brother live in a Spartan uniform.
“I am just excited to see him play on such a big platform,” she said. “It’s going to be fun. It won’t be quiet, that’s for sure. It’s a great atmosphere and knowing we are there makes a difference. It’s always good to have family around.”
Matt McQuaid was allotted six tickets for the opening game. Thanks to teammate Eron Harris, who was lost for the season with a knee injury in mid-February, the McQuaids were able to secure six more.
One of those cherished tickets belongs to Corey Chism.
Chism has known McQuaid since he was 4 years old and coached him during his senior season in Duncanville, but he has never seen McQuaid play at the college level, or not in person. Chism wasn’t optimistic heading into selection Sunday. He said he knew MSU was going to make it, but figured there was little chance of the Spartans playing so close to home.
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Then he got a text from his former star.
“It’s funny, because I was watching ESPN, and I got a text from Matt five minutes before they showed where they were playing, saying ‘hey coach, I have a ticket for you,’” Chism said. “It came on the screen that he was playing in Tulsa, and I was so relieved. God answered my prayers. I am excited that I finally get to see Matt play in person on the biggest stage against some of the best competition. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Chism may have never watched McQuaid play in an actual college game, but in January of 2016 he opened the doors of the Duncanville gym to MSU head coach Tom Izzo and the Spartans for a practice session while they were in town to watch the Cotton Bowl.
It was an easy decision.
“Having an ex-Panther coming in and the respect I have for that program, of course they were welcome,” Chism said. “It was very exciting and I was very happy for Matt. And if I remember right, he had a great practice. It was great to see Matt holding his own against players of that caliber. I am really proud of him.”
Coming out of high school, McQuaid averaged nearly 18 points and 9 rebounds per game, drawing the attention of Texas, Stanford, Southern Methodist, Gonzaga and Harvard, among others. He was named the No. 23 shooting guard in the country by ESPN100 and secured that reputation with a 45.1 3-point shooting performance in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball AAU circuit in 2015.
After originally committing to hometown SMU, McQuaid decided to decommit and head to his father’s home state and MSU. Rob McQuaid, a native of Midland, Michigan, played two seasons at Central Michigan University before finishing his playing career at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls, Texas.
McQuaid said he hasn’t had this many friends and family in the crowd since he was in high school. He is thankful they'll be there, but that won’t change his approach tonight, he said.
“I am just going to put my head down and go to work,” McQuaid said inside the MSU locker room Thursday inside BOK Center. “I am ready to go.”
His game is not quite where he wants it to be, but Matt McQuaid lost nearly the entire offseason recovering from double-hernia surgery. He also entered concussion protocol earlier this year after being accidentally struck in the head by teammate Nick Ward.
He said he feels like he is starting to find his groove at the right time.
“I have an extra bounce in my step,” McQuaid smiled. “I feel really good.”
This season, McQuaid is averaging 5.4 points per game for the Spartans (19-14, 10-8) and is playing nearly 21 minutes a night. He scored 15 points in an 84-74 home win over Wisconsin in late February, tying a season high.
MSU has made the NCAA tournament in 20 straight seasons. It’s nothing new for the program to be playing on the sports’ biggest stage. For the McQuaids, however, the magnitude of the moment has not been lost.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Rob McQuaid said of seeing his son in the Big Dance. “Every time I go watch him I think back to when we started this journey in third grade. He has put in so much work. I am proud of him for keeping his head up and understanding the process and trying to get better.”