Cassius Winston Earns Second Basketball All-American Honor
The Michigan State Spartan basketball team finished with a shortened season that includes no post-season tournaments because of the COVID-19 safety precautions. According to the final AP poll, they finished No. 9 in the nation. They entered the campaign as the No. 1 team.
Enter the season there was a lot of celebration around Cassius Winston. He didn’t disappoint, as today he was named for the second straight season an All American. MSU men’s basketball said of the honor:
Michigan State men’s basketball senior guard Cassius Winston (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) was named a Second Team All-American by the Associated Press on Friday.
This is the second-straight year Winston has earned All-American honors from the Associated Press as he was a first-team selection in 2018-19.
Winston was also tabbed a second-team All-American selection by The Sporting News this year.
An All-Big Ten Conference First Team pick by the media and the coaches, Winston led Michigan State, and ranked third in the Big Ten, in scoring with 18.6 points per game and was fourth in the league with 5.9 assists. He led the league in 3-point field goal percentage (43.2%), was second in the Big Ten in free throw percentage (85.2%), eighth in field goal percentage (44.8%) and tied for seventh in the league in steals (1.2)
He was one of only seven Division I players averaging at least 18.0 points, 5.5 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game.
Winston finished his Michigan State career ranked sixth all-time with 1,969 points and is the all-time leader in assists at MSU and in the Big Ten Conference with 894.
He is one of only four players in Division I history to score at least 1,900 points and hand out at least 850 assists.
Winston is the sixth Michigan State player to ever earn multiple All-American honors during their careers, joining Johnny Green (1958, 1959), Earvin “Magic” Johnson (1978, 1979), Steve Smith (1990, 1991), Shawn Respert (1994, 1995) and Mateen Cleaves, (1998, 1999, 2000).
The recognition by the Associated Press is just one of several honors for Winston, who earned first team All-American honors from NCAA March Madness, was a second team selection by NBCSports.com and The Athletic and was selected to the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-District V team.
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