So why did Winston turn this opportunity down and go to MSU instead? If you can earn a degree from this elite institution, and make the right connections in the process, your career trajectory will be like an escalator. Obviously, getting into Harvard is a chance to have a golden ticket for the rest of your life. That balance, too, of this day and age of college sports is refreshing. “He’s been great because to his mother, she would rather him be a great student than a great player. “He’s been great,” Izzo continued in his description of Cassius Winston.

The Ivys, still to this day, cling to the old NCAA notion (think Walter Byers era) of romanticizing amateurism and emphasizing academics. Harvard, like the rest of the Ivy League, does not offer athletic-scholarships, so Winston got accepted on his academic merit. Yes, Cassius Winston got into Harvard, where he planned to major in advertising management, his current course of study in East Lansing. But Cassius is right up there with one of the best we’ve ever had as far as his basketball IQ.” If I think this team in general is a little better, I think we have a better basketball IQ than some teams we’ve had. I’ve been blessed with the Valentines and Draymonds, who I consider have huge basketball IQs. “I think Cassius is one of the smartest players. It was a natural follow up to what Izzo had said earlier about the Detroit native, describing him thusly: The query was about how the floor general who wears #5 for the Spartans measures up in terms of book smarts and just overall intelligence, and what kind of intellectualism he has off the court. I mean, I don’t have a lot of guys that do that,” Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo responded when we asked him about his star point guard, Cassius Winston. In light of Cassius Winston leading MSU to the Final Four this weekend, the timeliness of the subject matter mandates we move the article link back to the top of the site’s feed) (Editor’s note: this story was originally posted after Big Ten Media Day in October.

Cassius winston