The Associated Press released their NCAA Men’s Basketball All-American Teams today, and Michigan State point guard and captain Cassius Winston was named an AP Second-Team All-American.
This is Winston’s second year in a row receiving All-American honors from the Associated Press, making him the first Spartan to earn consecutive All-American honors since Mateen Cleaves (1998-2000). Of course, that is just another somewhat bittersweet parallel between Cleaves and Winston. Cleaves won a national championship in 2000 while Winston was robbed of that opportunity due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, it was an absolute honor to watch Winston’s journey at Michigan State, particularly in this final season where he overcame immense personal tragedy to end the season with perhaps the greatest stretch of his young career, leading the Spartans to a third straight Big Ten Regular Season Championship on his way out of East Lansing.
