Michigan State Basketball: Ranking the 5 best moments of 2020

From left, Michigan State's Cassius Winston, Xavier Tillman and Gabe Brown pose with the Big Ten Championship trophy after beating Ohio State on Sunday, March 8, 2020, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. The Spartans won a share of the title with Maryland and Wisconsin.200308 Msu Osu 329a /

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Teammates hug Michigan State’s Cassius Winston (5) after he was presented with a ceremonial ball for breaking Mateen Cleaves’ assist record during the 67-55 win over Wisconsin at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Friday, Jan. 17, 2020.Msu 011720 Kd Kd714 /

2. Cassius Winston breaks all-time Big Ten assists record

Some records are made to be broken and it was clear early on in Cassius Winston’s career that he was poised to chase down Mateen Cleaves’ assists record. He did just that and approached 1,000 for his career and he may have gotten there if the NCAA Tournament happened.

In a matchup with Wisconsin, Michigan State needed a big win and got just that, taking the Badgers down 67-55.

That wasn’t the big news from the win, however. Cassius broke Winston’s all-time assists record at Michigan State which also happened to be the Big Ten record. His 817th assist was an exciting one as Winston found Xavier Tillman for an alley-oop. It was a fitting record-breaking assist for Winston who had been throwing alley-oops throughout his entire career.

Although his season was cut short due to COVID-19, he still came close to reaching that coveted 2,000-point, 1,000-assist plateau for his career.

It’s going to be a while before someone breaks Cassius’ record.

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