Michigan State basketball takes hot-shooting Cassius Winston home to Detroit vs. Oakland

EAST LANSING – Miles Bridges made a celebrated homecoming last year, then another in April by deciding to stay at Michigan State this season.

Detroit native Cassius Winston never left the state. On Saturday, the sophomore will return his hometown as the Spartans’ hottest shooter when they face Oakland at Little Caesars Arena.

“It’s a great feeling. People back home, they supported me along this journey a lot,” Winston said Wednesday. “And just to go back there and play in front of them, it’s gonna be huge.”

MSU (9-1) and Oakland (6-4) will be the second game of the Hitachi College Basketball Showcase. They tip off at 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU), following the Michigan-Detroit Mercy opener at noon.

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The Spartans have beaten the Grizzlies all 15 times they have played, though Oakland has played MSU close four times since the series began in 1998.

“Definitely it’s a big game,” Winston said. “The arena, the team, the setting – every time we play them it’s a big game, it’s a battle. That’s how we approach it.”

It also is the former University of Detroit Jesuit star’s first game there since he won Mr. Basketball and a Class A state title in 2016.

“I’m happy Cassius gets to go home and play,” said Bridges, who left Flint for three years at prep school in West Virginia before returning to MSU.

The Spartans arrive on an eight-game win streak, ranked No. 2 in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the Associated Press Top 25. It is their first game in Detroit since the 2009 national title loss to North Carolina at Ford Field and their debut at Little Caesars Arena, which will host first- and second-round NCAA games this season.

“We get a chance to play downtown Detroit, we get a chance to play where (Stan) Van Gundy leads the Pistons, we get a chance to play in a place where if we win enough we could be playing there in March,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “There’s so many good things for us, too. We get to beat a quality team if we win that game. … I want to see if our team is maturing to the point that we understand that.”

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Part of the Spartans’ maturity to this point has been the improved play of Winston, both becoming an offensive force and an improved defender. He took over the starting point guard job from senior Tum Tum Nairn, in his third year as a captain, and has responded by averaging 11 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.

Where the 6-foot Winston has shown his most strides, however, is in shooting the ball. He’s making 54.9 percent from the floor and a blistering 61 percent from 3-point range, making 25 of 41 attempts on the season. In MSU’s past six games, Winston has hit 19 of 27 shots from beyond the arc.

“Right now, Cassius has been as consistent a player as we’ve had,” Izzo said. “(We) went through the film of the last game (against Southern Utah), and the difference in him defensively on ball screens this year compared to last year is enormous. And so he’s been consistent on both ends.”

Winston set a career high with 28 points against Connecticut, with a virtually unstoppable second-half performance, and followed his MVP honors at the Phil Knight Invitational Victory Bracket with a well-rounded 17 points, five rebounds and seven assists against Notre Dame.

Izzo has started using Nairn in a two-point guard lineup a little more of late to maximize Winston’s outside shooting as the “point-two guard.” MSU’s increased scoring depth in the post – with Bridges, Nick Ward, Jaren Jackson and others – means does not need to focus as much on penetrating to score.

Izzo added that Winston may be the Spartans’ best shooter coming off screens. But he also wants him to push the pace more in transition and on the break to become more versatile and revive some of those drives for scores.

“When Cash is aggressive, I don’t think there’s a team that can beat us, just because of how great of a passer he is,” Bridges said. “If he can find a happy medium between passing and shooting, then we’ll be tough to beat.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!