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Michigan State Basketball: Cassius Winston on verge of Mount Rushmore

By Connor Muldowney

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 29: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates a basket against the LSU Tigers during the first half in the East Regional game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 29: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates a basket against the LSU Tigers during the first half in the East Regional game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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Michigan State basketball’s Mount Rushmore seems to be close to adding a new member as Cassius Winston is verging on Spartan legend status.

There’s plenty of debate about Michigan State basketball’s Mount Rushmore.

Who would you put on your MSU Mount Rushmore if you were pressured to answer that question today? Draymond Green? Shawn Respert? Greg Kelser? Scott Skiles? Steve Smith? Jay Vincent? Johnny Green?

The options are endless, but two seem to be as set in stone — pun intended — as you can get in Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves. And both have one thing in common: they engineered Michigan State’s two national titles as their teams’ point guard and leader.

Cassius Winston could soon be that third staple of everyone’s Mount Rushmore.

See, there’s debate about who should make up the other two spots between about 10-15 guys, but no one would argue if Winston led Michigan State to a national title in 2019-20 that he deserves to be the third staple.

It’s not just winning the national title that gets you consideration, either. He would be in consideration without a title, but he’s been one of the best all-time players to come through the program and it started with a relatively quiet freshman campaign. He was the third-best incoming freshman in 2016 behind Miles Bridges and Josh Langford and wasn’t even the starter as Tum Tum Nairn’s backup for most of the season.

Winston averaged 6.7 points and 5.2 assists per game and if you were told after that season that he would become one of the best point guards in school history, you’d probably think it was a joke.

Since then, he has seen his points per game average triple and his assists have gone up to 7.5 while shooting anywhere between 40 and 50 percent from 3-point range. His craftiness level, if rated by EA Sports, would be a 99. Cassius is a special player, and it didn’t take long into his sophomore year for people to realize that.

Now he’s on pace to reach 2,000 points and 1,000 assists for his career. He’s currently third in Big Ten history in assists with 713 and second in Michigan State history behind Cleaves’ 816. He could also become the 16th player in conference history to reach 2,000 points as he would join Smith and Respert and rank third in program history.

That’s enough to earn a spot on Mount Rushmore in itself — well that and leading Michigan State to an improbable Final Four without your second-leading scorer for the second half of the season and an ailing Nick Ward while hobbling on bad legs for the entire postseason.

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Cassius is one of the most special players in Michigan State history and wanted to come back to bring home a title to East Lansing and if he does just that, he’ll not only be on the Mount Rushmore of Spartan basketball legends, but he’ll need a statue outside the Breslin Center.

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