Michigan State Basketball: Grad transfer PG Bryce Aiken expressing interest

Michigan State basketball is drawing interest from Harvard point guard transfer Bryce Aiken who missed most of 2019-20 with an injury.

Losing Cassius Winston is going to hurt the Spartans in 2020-21. The All-American point guard fell just short of 2,000 career points and 900 assists and put the team on his back more often than not.

Winston averaged at least 18 points per game over his final two seasons and was named an All-American as a junior as well as Big Ten Player of the Year. He had just as solid a senior season, but Luka Garza was just dominant in Big Ten play and ran away with the award but he was still a first-team all-conference selection.

The way Winston finished his career was as a winner and champion, kissing the Spartan logo on senior day after capturing his third straight Big Ten title.

With his career cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Spartans must now focus on the future at point guard. They will be short on guards for the 2020-21 season with Winston graduating and Tom Izzo could look toward the transfer portal for his replacement. One name that has recently surfaced is Harvard’s Bryce Aiken.

According to a story on 247Sports by Evan Daniels, Aiken has been contacted by several schools following his decision to transfer from Harvard but he has Michigan State on his wish list.

"Aiken also noted that there are a handful of schools that he’s still hoping will reach out.“I guess you could say the Blue Blood schools and Michigan State I would definitely love to hear from,” he said. “Seeing Cassius [Winston] in their program and him obviously leaving to go to the NBA this year, it would definitely be an interest of mine.”"

Cassius’ success may draw some interest from point guard prospects in the future, seeing how Izzo used the star and let him run the show. He gave him the keys to the car and let him drive Michigan State as far as he could take it.

Aiken would be a heck of a pull for the Spartans if they’re looking for a one-year holdover at point guard and don’t want to make Rocket Watts the one. He played just seven games in 2019-20 and averaged 16.7 points, shot 41 percent from the floor and 36 percent from distance. As a healthy junior last season, he averaged a career-best 22.2 points, 2.6 assists, shot 43 percent from the floor and 40 percent from distance.

The only real concern here would be health as he suffered a foot injury in 2019-20 that limited him to just seven games and hasn’t played more than 20 games since 2016-17.

Could the Spartans land Aiken? It would requite Izzo reaching out, but if a transfer has interest in a program, the chances of him contacting the Spartans would be high. No visits during the COVID-19 outbreak make things difficult, though.