The 6-foot-7 redshirt junior guard will transfer to The Master’s College, a Christian liberal arts school northeast of Los Angeles which competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, or NAIA.
Following a heralded high school career, Byrd was redshirted his freshman year college following a broken foot suffered as a senior at Blackhawk Christian School in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Byrd went on to have three surgeries on his left foot, limiting his effectiveness on the court. He appeared in 23 games last season, averaging 1.1 points and 1.0 rebounds in 7.6 minutes per game.
Fans often were not shy on Twitter when discussing Byrd’s struggles, regularly tweeting disparaging messages to the former MSU guard through the social media network.
“It’s definitely negative for me — people talk a lot of (trash) about me,” Byrd said in a February 2014 State News article. “I just try to be bigger than all that. ... I’ve gotten better at just ignoring all that stuff.
“It’s just pretty pathetic that you just have to hide behind a computer to say those things. I would love for some of those people to be in our shoes and see what we go through.”
Byrd confirmed to the Lansing State Journal that the negativity is a factor in his transfer.
“I feel like sometimes when I’m at the gym or Breslin, I doubt myself because of just not living up to the hype and failing in games, and not performing through a bunch of negative media,” Byrd told the LSJ. “That’s been hard for me, it really has. People say ‘just don’t read it or just don’t listen to it,’ that’s hard to do. So I’m away from it, I’m more free and can just play basketball.”
Perhaps the biggest moment of Byrd’s MSU career occurred against Iowa on Jan. 28, knocking down a dagger 3-pointer late in the game to seal a 71-69 victory.
The LSJ reported that Byrd will depart East Lansing with his fiancee Klarissa Bell, former MSU women’s basketball guard and East Lansing High School star. The couple will be married in June.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story erroneously referred to the Lansing State Journal as the Lansng State Journal. The name has been corrected.
