All eyes were on Zion Williamson entering the Elite Eight, but Michigan State point guard Cassius Winston stole the show to bring the Spartans back to the Final Four.
No one expected Michigan State to give Duke much of a fight, and Mike Krzyzewski’s 11-1 record against Tom Izzo entering the contest gave Blue Devils’ fans even more reasons for optimism. None of that mattered to Spartans’ point guard Cassius Winston, who put the team on his back to send Michigan State to the Final Four for the first time since 2015.
Zion Williamson was his usual dominant self for the Blue Devils, putting up 24 points on 10-19 shooting and grabbing 14 rebounds, but Winston simply wouldn’t let the Spartans quit. Winston was all over the floor for the Spartans, putting up a team-high 20 points and dropped 10 assists for good measure.
The Big Ten Player of the Year, Winston wouldn’t let his teammates get intimidated by the Duke mystique or be scared of facing off with the Blue Devils’ terrific trio of Williamson, R.J. Barrett, and Cam Reddish. Winston was definitely not the best pro prospect on the court, and he might not have been the best future pro on his own team, but he was clearly the best player on the floor down the stretch.
A lot of that comes down to Winston’s experience basically guiding the Spartans’ offense by himself for a significant part of the season. Michigan State entered the year with three terrific juniors in Winston, Joshua Langford, and Nick Ward only to see Langford go out for the year due to injury and Ward miss significant time with a broken hand.
Ward is still trying to round into form and has come off the bench in the NCAA Tournament, so the Spartans have become Winston’s team, and he now has the opportunity to join Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves as the leaders of Michigan State title teams. Winston’s excellent play down the stretch helped Michigan State stop the Zion express and may have made the Spartans the favorites to cut down the nets on April 8.