Tom Izzo stepped to the podium Tuesday at his team's media day and began, as always, with some general thoughts on the season. The outlook. Bright as can be. The expectations. Play into April. The roster. Deep and experienced. Izzo started with his seniors, first Joshua Langford, then Kyle Ahrens, then Conner George.
"And last but not least, of course, is Cassius."
That's right, Cassius Winston is back. Last year's Big Ten Player of the Year decided to forego the NBA Draft to return for his senior season, and thus Michigan State is one of the early favorites to win the national championship. The Spartans would have been well-regarded either way. With Winston leading the way, they have a chance to be remembered.
Winston knows this. He knew it at the end of last season, when Michigan State came within two wins of the ultimate goal. After the Spartans lost to Texas Tech in the Final Four, a heartbreaking end to a heart-pounding run, Winston spoke like a player with unfinished business. He said he wanted to leave behind a winning legacy, and "you can't do that without that last piece."
It's a common sentiment in that moment. The locker room is quiet and broken, and fixing it is all that seems to matter. The NBA feels like an intrusion. Then time moves on and the pain wears off, and the bigger dreams start to beckon. College becomes the interruption. So who knew if Winston would really be back, once he stepped away and thought things through.
"I didn't have a clue at all, honestly," said his close friend Xavier Tillman.
"I didn't know," said Joshua Langford, the other recruit remaining from the vaunted 2016 class. "I was just waiting to see what he did. But I was wishing him the best whether he stayed or left, because he's my brother. He's part of the Michigan State family."
Within that foursome that arrived three years ago, Winston was the least likely NBA player. Miles Bridges was the guarantee. Nick Ward and Langford were pretty good bets themselves. But Winston lacked the size and athleticism, and his first season left plenty to be desired. Even last season, when he put up numbers matched only by lotterly pick Ja Morant, Winston was praised most often for things like his smarts and deception. His NBA potential went largely overlooked.
But it was there, beneath his hunched posture and the hitch in his gait, and it grew clearer in the NCAA Tournament. By the time Winston had carried the Spartans to the Final Four, outshining more glittery players along the way, the NBA was a very real possibility. Izzo encouraged Winston to get feedback from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee to gauge his stock in the draft. Winston was told he'd likely be selected in the second round.
"I had a legit chance to maybe go, to make some things happen," he said.
Winston had another voice in his ear at this time, aside from his parents. It was Tillman, the drink to Winston's straw, as Izzo likes to say. The duo could take Michigan State where it hasn't gone in 20 years if Winston returned, and surely Tillman tried making a pitch for Winston to stay.
"I told him to leave. I told him to go," Tillman said. "He was the Big Ten Player of the Year, he was the best point guard in the nation. I felt like there was nothing left that he could do. ... I told him he should leave, because he did everything collegiately that I thought he needed to do."
In Winston's mind, there were a few unchecked boxes. Personally, he could get stronger and faster. He could improve his defense. He could enhance his game to the point where there'd be little doubt about his ability to play in the NBA. In the process, Winston could also become the first player in the history of college basketball to record 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in his career. If he replicates his numbers from last year, he'll get there with relative ease.
"It should be one of his goals, it should be one of our goals, because it's something that is very, very special," Izzo said. "But maybe more special would be to lead this team each and every day to getting better."
And that's what Winston thought about, more than anything else, as he pondered his next move. He lifted Michigan State to the precipice of the national championship last season. He wanted to finish the job, like Mateen Cleaves in 1999. He wanted to cement himself as a winner, like Magic Johnson 20 years before that. So less than two weeks after the Final Four, following some conversations with his parents and coaches, Winston decided to delay one dream to fulfill another.
"It's crazy," he said. "You dream of going to the NBA, that's your ultimate goal, and then it's like, bam, the opportunity is right there in front of your face, and it's hard to maybe turn down. It's hard to kind of come back. But the NBA isn't going anywhere. This is my senior year, though. I would have missed out on that opportunity."
Winston gave the draft more than cursory consideration. There was a part of him, he acknowledged, that thought his time at Michigan State was over. But he said it was an easy decision, in the end, "to go to war for one more year."
"Coming back and having an opportunity to do some things that a lot of kids don't get a chance to do, you don't want to just leave all that on the table," Winston went on. "You want to take advantage of that. And I feel like I can get better, I can grow, I can become stronger, and that can help me out in my long-term career. I felt like that was the best option for me."
The news came as a bit of a shock to Tillman, who was preparted to enter his junior season without Winston by his side.
"Right away I was surprised, but then after we talked about his decision and why he made the choice, I was like, okay, I get it. I agree. ... Then hearing that he could be the first player to break 2,000 points and 1,000 assists, when I heard that he could do that, I was like, 'Okay, you made a good decision," Tillman said with a laugh.
Langford, who gave Winston his space as he made up his mind, is happy to have him back, too. With three of their top four scorers returning from last year, plus a crop of young players coming into their own, Langford likes the Spartans' chances. It's hard not to. And he's eager to see Winston, the unanimous Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year, push his game ever higher.
"I just wanted him to make the best decision for himself and what he believed that he should do," Langford said. "I think it's great for us, for this team, for this program, that he came back because it really gives us another chance to do some big things this year. And even him individually, do even more big things than he did last year."
Winston's poised to follow through. He trained harder than ever this summer, lifting five times a week instead of closer to three, intent on strengthening his lower half. He trimmed his body fat by six percent and increased his dead lift by some 100 pounds. He improved, he said, in every physical category. Izzo said he looks stronger in practice. His defense is noticeably better. He said Winston "did everything we asked of him and more," which is to say he did as usual. In a recent poll of more than 100 Division 1 coaches, Winston was the runaway choice for best player in the country.
As for that record? Winston needs 589 points to reach 2,000, and 286 assists to reach 1,000. He racked up 733 points and 291 assists last year. Izzo wants to scale back his minutes with an eye toward keeping him fresh for March, but Winston has chance to enter the annals of college basketball if he stays healthy. He'll surely break Shawn Respert's all-time Michigan State scoring record and Cleaves' all-time assists record along the way. This is a legend we're talking about.
Winston, though, returned to be a winner.
"We got a legit opportunity, and in this game, at this level, that's all you can ask for," he said.
