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Cassius Winston has been great all season, but he took it to another level against Michigan
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Less than twenty seconds were on the clock at Crisler Center when Cassius Winston finally cracked a smile. He was stepping to the free throw line with No. 10 Michigan State holding a 74-68 advantage over No. 7 Michigan. He knocked down both attempts, and put the game out of reach.
It was a fitting way for the Spartans to seal the deal in Ann Arbor after one of the most impressive outings of the season for the MSU guard.
Michigan State posted a 77-70 victory over Michigan, ending the Wolverines’ 22-game winning streak at home and jumping ahead to the top spot in the B1G standings. Winston all but solidified his spot as the conference’s Player of the Year when the season comes to an end.
Winston finished the game with 27 points, eight assists and made 14 trips to the free throw line, converting on 13 of those shots. Most impressively, he played all 40 minutes in the victory.
“I came into this game kind of expecting [to play all 40 minutes], so my mind was ready to go the whole time, and it was one of those games where the excitement was so crazy that I didn’t really get tired until after,” Winston said following the win. “My adrenaline was going, so I didn’t really get tired until we got back to the locker room. It was a lot of fun playing out there.”
Sunday’s performance capped a huge week for Winston, who put a similar stat line against Rutgers on Wednesday, scoring 28 points and dishing eight more assists in a 71-60 win over the Scarlet Knights. For his efforts, Winston earned B1G Player of the Week honors for the fifth time this season, setting a new program record.
He’s also about to join Draymond Green and Denzel Valentine and become the third Spartan to earn the conference’s Player of the Year Award.
Winston has been tremendous all season, but he’s shown a little something different this past week, and on Sunday, in particular. With no Joshua Langford, no Nick Ward and no help off the bench, Winston has been forced to shoulder most of the weight for the Spartans.
Earlier in the week, Tom Izzo made Winston a team captain moving forward, and appropriately so considering how heavily Michigan State leans on his production. And, for a lot of guys in his position, jumping into the leadership role means getting more shots. But for Winston, it means creating baskets in some way, shape or form.
That’s exactly what he did in 40 minutes against Michigan. He frequently got his teammates open, setting up easy points in the paint throughout the game. Winston was aggressive, driving to the basket and forcing the Wolverines’ defense — which is one of the NCAA’s best — to send him to the foul line. He ended up making that trip 14 times.Winston ended the game with three turnovers, a somewhat low total considering Michigan’s aggressive defense and his ridiculously high usage on Sunday.
And, like a true team captain, he didn’t hog all of the credit after the game.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Winston said when asked if he felt like he was carrying the team. “I had a really good team. Those guys stepped up in big ways and helped me out in a lot of ways. It’s easy to lead these guys and easy to play with these guys. That was a really big team win.”
And now, with just three games left (at Indiana, vs. Nebraska and vs. Michigan), Michigan State is in excellent position to claim at least a share of the B1G title. Not too shabby for a squad with two starters wearing casts.
Don’t let Winston’s modesty get in the way, though. The star guard is carrying Michigan State to the finish line, and the Spartans cleared a huge hurdle by defeating Michigan in Ann Arbor on Sunday.
If you were Cassius Winston, you’d be smiling after that game, too.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB