Cassius Winston and Tom Izzo In Beginning Stages of A Prank War
By Kyle Koster
Cassius Winston decided to return to Michigan State for his senior season after exploring the NBA landscape, but not without putting a scare into Tom Izzo. The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn details the phone call the point guard placed to his coach, during which the player’s father joked Winston would be transferring.
Quick on his feet, Izzo had a clever retort.
It took Cassius Winston three days to decide not to test the NBA Draft waters. He waited an extra day to tell his coach. “Make him sweat,” Winston told me.
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) May 3, 2019
Here’s how it went down https://t.co/9duWdNNGSU pic.twitter.com/Ud7gIv5GwC
Winston leaving Michigan State would have rocked the college basketball world and made little sense to anyone. Izzo-to-the-Cavs rumors have died down a bit since LeBron James left, but are still the persistent itch that never truly goes away.
This is all excellent news for Spartans fans. Winston is arguably the best floor general in East Lansing since Magic Johnson and his presence means a national title is within reason. It could be a concern, however, if coach and player get too into an escalating prank war through the season.
Those have been known to get out of control. Can’t have Winston pretending to miss an alarm on the day of the Michigan game or Izzo forcing his guard to play with his back to the basket as a joke.
MSU enthusiasts should hope for a quick and easy detente.