Michigan State Basketball: Player grades for Big Ten road-opening win at Northwestern

Michigan State basketball picked up the Big Ten’s first conference road win of the season at Northwestern. Cassius Winston set the bar high for grades.

The Big Ten was 0-13 on the road in conference play before Wednesday night and then Michigan State changed that. Ending the conference’s cold streak away from home with a 77-72 win over Northwestern wasn’t exactly the most impressive victory, but it was a road win nonetheless, and one where Michigan State dominated for 38 minutes.

Michigan State pieced together a solid game until the final minutes when it saw a 12-point lead vanish thanks to some hot shooting from Boo Buie who will undoubtedly be a thorn in the Spartans’ side for years to come.

In the end, it was Cassius Winston who led the Spartans to the win as he looked like his old self, scoring 21 points with six assists and making the first two 3-pointers of the game to set the tone.

Two Spartans finished with double-doubles as well. Gabe Brown and Xavier Tillman each grabbed 10 rebounds and broke double figures in the scoring column — something only one Spartan was able to do against Oakland on Saturday.

With the win, Michigan State becomes the only 2-0 team in Big Ten play and improves to 8-3 on the season with a three-game winning streak.

Cassius obviously got the highest grade, but who was a close second?