Michigan State's Cassius Winston is on a mission: He wants a title

EAST LANSING — In the minutes after Michigan State’s loss to Texas Tech in the Final Four, no decisions had been made. At least officially.

Yet the tone in Cassius Winston’s voice and the words he chose in the U.S. Bank Stadium locker room after a 61-51 defeat spoke volumes.

“We’re happy with the year we had,” he assessed with mixed emotions, “just at the same time we’re hurt. We know that we could’ve went further. We could’ve did some more things, some bigger things.”

Then he was asked about whether he would test the NBA draft process. Winston had no idea how it worked, he sheepishly confessed.

“I’m enjoying it here. I’m enjoying being a Spartan. I’m just enjoying this,” he continued. “I want to win a championship. I want to do that on each and every level. When I leave my mark on Michigan State, I want to be known as a winner. And you can’t do that without that last piece.”

Without explicitly saying it, by stating his mission, Winston declared his intent to return.

He made it public Friday afternoon that he would come back for his senior season, mirroring the decision Mateen Cleaves made nearly 20 years earlier coming off Tom Izzo’s first Final Four appearance.

The Spartans won the national title in 2000 after Cleaves’ decision. The pieces are in place for Winston to do the same.

Joshua Langford can be his Charlie Bell.

Aaron Henry his Morris Peterson.

Xavier Tillman his Andre Hutson.

Kyle Ahrens his A.J. Granger.

With Winston running the show and directing traffic, just like Cleaves.

“Everybody says if you got a quarterback, you got a guard — then that’s a great way to start to build your team,” Izzo said Friday on WVFN-AM (730) in Lansing. “Well, we don’t have to rebuild, we just have to plug some pieces in.”

Biggest piece

The 6-foot-1 Winston earned Big Ten player of the year and first-team All-America honors as a junior, averaging 18.8 points, 7.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds in 33.5 minutes while playing in all 39 games. He made people around him better as he improved his scoring, and he showed ability to take over games late — traits that Cleaves displayed in taking MSU from a Final Four participant in 1999 to a champion a year later.

Izzo said he “pushed Cassius” to explore the NBA process, but Winston had other plans and ideas.

“I thought he should at least do some checking around,” Izzo said. “But No. 1, I think Cassius is a very smart kid. He knows that he needs to get a little stronger and better, and he wants to. It’s hard when you come off a year like this and say, ‘Wow, will it ever be better?’ And he decided that it could be better, both for him physically and the growth that he can have.

“I think he has some team goals and some individual goals. Getting a player of his caliber back of course is a good thing for Michigan State and our program. But I think it’s a good deal for Cassius, too.”

Plugging holes

While Langford is expected to return in the late summer from February foot surgery that cost him the final two-thirds of MSU’s season, Winston will have to adjust to life without Nick Ward.

The 6-9 forward, who returned last year after testing the NBA draft process, is the second player from the vaunted 2016 recruiting haul to leave early. Winston’s long-time friend Miles Bridges left a year ago after making a ballyhooed announcement to return for his sophomore season, expressing a similar desire to Winston’s about coming back to chase a national championship.

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Cleaves adapted in 1999-2000 to the graduation of fellow Flintstone Antonio Smith, the bedrock of Izzo’s program in those early days. Winston got a head start this season on that adjustment when Ward’s broken hand cost him five games in the regular season and limited him in the postseason. The Spartans added a Big Ten tournament title, a win over Duke and Izzo’s eighth Final Four appearance, 20 years after his first.

“One thing about Nick and I, there was nothing phony. What you saw was what you get,” Izzo said. “What you saw was a coach who had a lot of respect for him coming back and working as hard as he did. And a shame that he got injured, and it didn’t end quite like he maybe wanted it to. But he has improved, both maturity and basketball-wise. I’ll be his biggest fan.”

Izzo has one scholarship open at the moment with Ward’s departure. There are three significant transfer options MSU is tied to currently, but only one — Virginia Tech graduate transfer Kerry Blackshear, a 6-10 power forward from Florida — would be an immediate option. Blackshear also has his name entered in the NBA draft.

The other option is for Izzo to pursue pieces for the future. Sam and Joey Hauser are transferring from Marquette, and Izzo had recruited the younger Hauser (Joey) aggressively for the 2018 recruiting class. They also reportedly are looking at home state Wisconsin, like Blackshear is examining his home state program Florida. Sam Hauser will have one year left and Joey three, but they are not expected to have immediate eligibility after transferring and likely will sit out next season wherever they land.

That 2000 title team also blended a highly touted transfer into its mix with Mike Chappell, a Southfield product who left Duke to return home to Michigan. Chappell provided key moments that season, including a critical 3-pointer and putback against Florida in the national championship game after Cleaves injured his ankle.

There are other graduate transfers in the portal who will be immediately eligible this fall. Internally, MSU could turn to sophomores Thomas Kithier or Marcus Bingham Jr. while keeping junior Xavier Tillman at the starting spot he took over after Ward’s injury.

“We’re gonna have to find a 4-man that is consistent,” Izzo said Friday. “We got some good candidates for it.”

Health and luck

But to replicate the euphoria of that 2000 season and for Winston to place his name alongside Cleaves and Magic Johnson in the pantheon of MSU history, there is more needed.

That 2000 team had depth, with Chappell, Jason Richardson, David Thomas, Aloysius Anagonye and Adam Ballinger coming off the bench. Next year’s MSU team doesn’t have the experience in reserve, but it does bring in Rocket Watts, Malik Hall and Julius Marble to go with last year’s freshmen Kithier, Gabe Brown and Foster Loyer having made contributions to this year’s Final Four run. Izzo also expects “a big jump” from Aaron Henry.

And entering his 25th season as MSU’s head coach, Izzo knows there are things beyond his control that shape a championship run. He benefitted from Kenyon Martin’s broken leg in 2000, and he watched his own talented teams derailed by injuries — such as Kalin Lucas’ Achilles tear in 2010 and Keith Appling’s wrist injury in 2014 — and fall short. And next year’s team has two key players in Langford and Ahrens (back, then ankle) coming off injuries that derailed their seasons.

“I mean, you gotta stay healthy, you gotta get lucky,” he said. “But Cassius brings something.”

Check back in 11 months to see if he brings Izzo that coveted second national title.

The Spartans already have been ranked No. 1 in a number of delusionally early preseason projections. This year’s team did not have that same type of pressure, not like the 2017-18 team did after Bridges’ return and with fellow future lottery pick Jaren Jackson Jr. And the 2016 team, after a surprising Final Four run, thrived on the burden of expectations — until that group got shocked in the first round of the NCAA tournament against Middle Tennessee State, a 2-15 upset that rates as one of the biggest ever.

MSU will open next season against Kentucky in New York at the Champions Classic. Izzo said “the schedule will be just as monstrous or more so than always.”

“So I’m inviting the pressure,” he said. “We got a lot of work coming. … And I invite it. It’s gonna be good. There’s no bad news with that, either.”

Contact Chris Solari at csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.