Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from tough loss at Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - JANUARY 27: Nojel Eastern #20 and Matt Haarms #32 of the Purdue Boilermakers reach for a rebound against Kenny Goins #25 of the Michigan State Spartans at Mackey Arena on January 27, 2019 in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

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WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – JANUARY 27: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans shoots the ball over Grady Eifert #24 of the Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena on January 27, 2019 in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

2. Cassius Winston feeds off of hostile crowds

Cassius Winston doesn’t care about your “overrated” chants. Actually, the junior point guard and front-runner for Big Ten Player of the Year feeds off that hostility from road crowds and turned it into one heck of an effort in Mackey Arena.

Right when it looked like Winston and the Spartans were going to get run right out of the gym, he stepped up and helped engineer a comeback thanks to a huge second half. He scored eight in the first half on decent shooting, but caught fire in the final 20 minutes, finishing with 23 points and eight assists.

If he made his free throws and didn’t struggle at the line for the first time all year, he would have broken the 25-point mark but he still had a whale of a game.

When the point guard was at the line and chants of “overrated” were raining from the student section, something clicked. He helped turn a 23-point deficit into a four-point one and nearly made that chant go down as one of the worst to ever grace a basketball arena.

No, Purdue fans, Winston is not overrated, and you saw that firsthand in the final 15 minutes of this one, despite the Michigan State loss.

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