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Tom Izzo excited to see how battle of point guards plays out in Michigan State vs. LSU
By Andrew Olson
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No. 2-seed Michigan State and No. 3-seed LSU have each taken care of business in the NCAA Tournament to get to Friday night’s showdown in Washington, D.C. For many college basketball fans, the headlining match-up on the court between the Spartans and Tigers is the battle of the point guards. Count MSU coach Tom Izzo among those excited to see Cassius Winston and Tremont Waters go head to head.
“I really am looking forward to that,” Izzo told reporters Thursday. “Waters is heck of a player. He’s jet-quick. They’re similar in some ways, completely different in others. Cassius is not the greatest athlete. They’re both about the same size, but Cash can score it. He can pass it. Waters can score it. He can pass it.
“Waters is a little more disruptive on defense. I think Cassius is — his ability to shoot the ball from outside with consistency is a little better.”
Similar to memorable clashes on the gridiron, Michigan State and LSU will feature a battle of skilled signal-callers. Waters is LSU’s leading scorer (15.1 points per game) and was named the SEC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year.
“So it should be a heck of a matchup,” Izzo continued. “And usually everybody hopes for two good quarterbacks. And in the world champions of Super Bowl you always look for two good quarterbacks. We’ve got two great quarterbacks here, and I am looking forward to seeing how it works.
“But it won’t be where, I think, it will be Cassius against him or Waters against Winston. It’s still going to be a team. It’s five guys. We’re not guarding any one of their guys with one person. They’re too big and athletic to do that. So we’ll be cheating and having people on all sides of him.”
Michigan State and LSU is set for a 7:09 p.m. ET tipoff Friday. The game will air on CBS.
A former Florida beat reporter, Andrew writes for the Saturday Tradition News Desk.