Michigan State Basketball

Albion College basketball player Zachary Winston died Saturday night after being hit by a train, according to Kyle Austin of MLive.com.

Winston is the younger brother of Michigan State star Cassius Winston.

Albion Chief of Public Safety Scott Kipp said the police believe the 19-year-old stepped in front of the train intentionally.

"Last night, our family lost a student. And as families do in difficult times, we must come together to mourn and to embrace one another. We have been in close contact with the student’s family and are doing everything we can to support them," Albion College President Mauri Ditzler said in a statement.

The sophomore averaged 2.6 points per game last season in 28 appearances for the Division III school.

The youngest of three brothers, Khy, is a freshman on the same team.

Cassius is the oldest brother and the most well-known nationally as a key player for one of the biggest programs in college basketball. The guard was a consensus All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year last season and returned for his senior year to a squad that entered the year as the No. 1 team in the country.

He was the only consensus selection to the preseason All-American team this season.

On the first day of the 2019-20 NCAA men's basketball season, Michigan State is a slight Division I national championship favorite over Kansas and Kentucky.

The Spartans are the +550 favorites at the Caesars Sportsbook (bet $100 to win $550), with the Jayhawks and Wildcats trailing closely behind at +600.

CBB is BACK 🙌

Who’s your title pick? pic.twitter.com/4gsBN282P3

— br_betting (@br_betting) November 5, 2019

Michigan State, which opened as the No. 1 team in the Associated Press' Top 25 poll, will have an opportunity Tuesday night to further cement itself as the country's best team. Tom Izzo's squad plays Kentucky at New York's Madison Square Garden in one of the year's most highly anticipated matchups.

Xavier Tillman and reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Cassius Winston return from last year's Spartans team, which won 32 games and reached the Final Four. Izzo has the pieces necessary to capture his second title, although Joshua Langford is out indefinitely with a foot injury.

Among the early contenders, no team is a bigger wild card than Memphis.

The Tigers won 22 games in Penny Hardaway's first season as head coach, and the 48-year-old's biggest success came on the recruiting trail as he assembled the No. 1 class in 247Sports' composite rankings. The group includes James Wiseman and Precious Achiuwa, who were ranked first and 15th, respectively.

The 15-year NBA guard has shown he can sell prep stars on the general direction of the program. Now it's up to the former Memphis basketball legend to show he can make the most of that talent on the floor.

The Tigers' first test comes Nov. 12 when they play No. 15 Oregon in Portland.

Michigan State is retiring Draymond Green's No. 23 jersey on Dec. 3, when the Spartans host No. 4 Duke.

Prior to winning three NBA titles and becoming a three-time All-Star with the Golden State Warriors, Green was the 2012 Big Ten Player of the Year as Michigan State reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

2⃣3⃣ will hang in the rafters forever as we retire @Money23Green's No. 23 on December 3rd 💚

"This is a fitting honor for one of the ultimate winners in Michigan State history."
-Coach Izzo#SFL pic.twitter.com/URFmloHsjN

— Michigan State Men's Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) October 28, 2019

Green didn't get off to a great start in East Lansing. Bruce Simmons, who was one of his assistant coaches in high school, told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne he had vented about possibly transferring from the school as a freshman:

"His freshman year at Michigan State, he got one minute against Ohio State. He called and said, 'Coach Bruce, I'm going to transfer. F--k this s--t.' And I said, 'Noooo. We don't do that. This is what you're going to do. You're going to go into practice. [Senior] Marquise Gray is getting your minutes. Bust his ass. Talk s--t to him. And then when you're doing that, look at Izzo, because Izzo is putting this [guy] on the court instead of you.'"

Green obviously stayed and steadily improved across each year with the Spartans. He went from averaging 11.4 minutes as a freshman to winning the Big Ten's Sixth Man of the Year award as a sophomore in 2009-10. In his junior year, he became a regular member of the starting rotation.

By the time he left, he was 18th all time at Michigan State in scoring (1,517 points) and first in rebounds (1,096).

Green's legacy has lasted well beyond his on-court career, too. A few months after signing a five-year, $82 million contract with the Warriors, he donated $3.1 million to Michigan State athletics in September 2015.

Green will be the 10th player to have his jersey officially retired by the school. The other nine are: Scott Skiles, Mateen Cleaves, Steve Smith, Johnny Green, Shawn Respert, Jay Vincent, Gregory Kelser, Magic Johnson and Morris Peterson.

The top-ranked Michigan State Spartans will play without star guard Joshua Langford for at least two months due to a recurrence of the foot injury that plagued him last season. 

Head coach Tom Izzo told reporters Tuesday that Langford will miss an indefinite period of time and be re-evaluated in January. 

"I love Josh Langford," Izzo said during his press conference. "He's given me everything on the court, off the court, in the classroom."

Langford, who will be a senior this season, was limited to 13 games in 2018-19 with what Izzo described as a "stress" injury to his foot.

The Alabama native was averaging a career-high 15.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game before his junior year came to an abrupt end. 

Izzo announced in August that Langford had been fully cleared for basketball activities. He was expected to play a significant role for a Spartans team the Associated Press put atop its preseason rankings with 60 of 65 first-place votes. 

Michigan State still has Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman to lead the team this season. The Spartans will open the 2019-20 campaign Nov. 5 against No. 2 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden in the Champions Classic. 

Former Michigan State and professional basketball player Mateen Cleaves was acquitted on Tuesday of sexual assault charges in Genesee County Circuit Court, according to John Wisely of the Detroit Free Press. 

Cleaves, 41, was charged with unlawful imprisonment, assault with intent to commit sexual penetration and criminal sexual conduct. He faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The jury in the Flint, Michigan courtroom began deliberations at 1:45 p.m. ET and took two-and-a-half hours before reaching a verdict.

The prosecution said that Cleaves dragged a Mount Morris, Michigan woman into a motel room before sexually assaulting her in 2015. Wisely provided further details regarding the prosecution's arguments.

"Cleaves forced himself on a drunken woman who ran from a motel room wearing only a bra in an attempt to flee him, they argued. Drunk and naked himself, they say, Cleaves pulled her back inside, twice, and raped her.

"Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor David Champine told jurors that Cleaves' lawyer would try to argue the sex was consensual but the evidence would show otherwise. He urged them to 'look at the surveillance video of the woman running away, screaming 'help me, help me, help me' and then being forced back into the room.'"

Per Wisely, one of Cleaves' attorneys, Mike Manley, "said in his closing argument that the sex was consensual, noting that the woman posed for pictures with Cleaves, put his phone number into her phone, went to a motel room with him, where she acknowledged kissing him.

"When the woman left the room wearing only her bra, Cleaves was doing the right thing by bringing her back so she could get dressed, Manley said."

Per the Associated Press, the decision comes after a four-year legal battle in which a district judge dismissed the charges in 2016 before the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal, stating that the judge abused "discretion of power." After the Michigan State Supreme Court refused to review the decision in 2018, the case went to trial.

Cleaves led Michigan State to the 2000 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship. He then played professional basketball from 2000-09, including stints with four NBA teams from 2000-06.

A notable development in the college basketball corruption trial occurred during Christian Dawkins' testimony on Wednesday.

Per Adam Zagoria of the New York Times, Dawkins testified that Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo "told me flat out they weren't going to pay" to get Brian Bowen's commitment.

When opening statements for the trial began last October, Dawkins' attorney, Steve Haney, said something similar to what his client did Wednesday. 

"Michigan State was one of the only schools that was not going to pay Brian Bowen to go there," Haney said, via Zagoria.

Per Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde and Pete Thamel, documents and bank records obtained during the investigation showed Dawkins and Izzo had at least one dinner together. It's not specified what they discussed or if any attempts of fraud and/or bribery were made

Haney also alleged Oregon was ready to spend "an astronomical amount of money" to secure Bowen's commitment. 

Bowen eventually committed to Louisville in July 2017, with Matt Norlander of CBS Sports calling it a surprise because they were "extremely late to the table" after he visited the campus two months earlier. 

Louisville suspended Bowen from all team activities on Sept. 27, 2017, the same day the school placed Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich on administrative leave as part of the FBI probe into corruption in college basketball. He was cleared by the FBI in November but wasn't allowed back on the basketball team. 

Bowen spent last season playing with the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League in Australia. 

Like so much of what Xavier Tillman does on the basketball court, how he helped to beat Duke was subtle. With 4.7 seconds left in the East Regional final, the Michigan State forward was standing on the sideline in front of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils were down one and had accumulated only four team fouls in the half, so their only hope for another last-second win was a steal and a quick score. Tillman knew, and as he waited for the referee to hand him the ball and blow the whistle, he locked eyes with guard Cassius Winston. And that's when he made a game-winning glance.

In lifting his eyebrows and moving his eyes upcourt in a blink, Tillman communicated exactly what he wanted Winston to do. Then Tillman slapped the ball, and Winston shed his defender and streaked up the court. Tillman hit him in stride and then watched in ecstasy as Winston dribbled out the clock and heaved the ball in the air. Duke was dead. The Spartans were heading to Minneapolis for the Final Four.

At the beginning of the season, Michigan State's coaches didn't expect for the 6'8", 245-pound sophomore to emerge as one of their stars in 2018-19, but they haven't been surprised by it. Tillman has a history of rising to the occasion. This past offseason, coaches asked him to improve his shooting. He has taken three times as many two-point attempts this season and is shooting a half percentage point better than a year ago on those shots. After not shooting a single three as a freshman, he's become somewhat of a threat from behind the arc. Coaches asked Tillman to shed some weight last year. He dropped 30 pounds over the course of a single summer.

The most monumental challenge Tillman has ever met, though, happened in high school: He became a father.

Balancing basketball and parenthood has been a battle every day, but Tillman wouldn't want his life to look any other way. "Having my daughter gave me a focus," he says. "There is no messing around anymore. Every day I am focused on being the best person I can be so she has a role model growing up."

Two-year-old Ayanna (or "Yanni" for short) has become a niece to every coach and player in the Spartans program. Tamia Todd, her mother, will become Tamia Tillman when she and Xavier are married this May. And for Xavier, the only thing that could make life sweeter is finishing this spring with two rings instead of one.

---

Tamia didn't believe the tests. She and Xavier were in New York for one of his high school basketball tournaments, and she went through half a dozen pregnancy tests before she was convinced they were correct. She worked up the courage to tell him. To her surprise, he was elated. From the day they'd met, Xavier said, she'd felt like family, and now it was official.

"I was terrified, and he was so excited," Tamia says. "I don't think there's any other guy that reacted the way he did. I was crying, and he was like, 'No, this is great.' He embraced it from the moment I told him."

The uncomfortable questions came when they returned home: Where are we going to live? What are we going to do? How are we going to tell our families? Tillman had recently committed to Michigan State, and when he discovered that his scholarship would allow them to live in a family dorm, he insisted she move up with him as they'd hoped. When it was time to tell their families, Todd was too scared to say anything, so Tillman did all the talking. He told her father that he took full responsibility for their unborn daughter. And he hasn't wavered since. Yanni was born on Dec. 3, 2016, and Tillman proposed to Todd the following April.

The summer he moved to East Lansing, Tillman grew up and slimmed down. All his life, he'd been the biggest guy among his group of friends, but he was a football and a basketball player, so it suited him. When he quit football, however, he didn't quit eating like he was a football player. He'd go to McDonald's for breakfast and then Qdoba for lunch. He'd order two of everything—chicken sandwiches, nuggets and fries—when he went to Wendy's. But playing at 280 pounds hadn't worked for him in the way it has for Zion Williamson. He committed to a workout plan and to making better choices at meal times. He even learned to cook. He lost 30 pounds.

As a freshman, he wasn't much of a factor. His transition to college basketball coincided with his transition to fatherhood, which meant plenty of sleepless nights and, at times, overwhelmingly full days. He averaged 2.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 8.7 minutes per game. But behind the scenes, he was improving—not just in basketball but also in time management. He made a point to get to practice early so that he could leave right after team dinners. Most nights, he brought leftovers home and ate with Todd and Yanni. And when Todd needed some alone time, he would take Yanni to a teammate's apartment or to a team movie.

"Being a parent is time-consuming, and so is being a student-athlete," Todd says. "You don't get much time to yourself. I never hear him complain about 'me time.' Whenever he has extra time on his schedule, he wanted to do something as a family."

Last summer, he spent extra time in the gym shooting. He rarely left for the day without having put up 1,000 shots from all around the arc. And after a year in his new body, he worked on defensive switches, during which he now can capably handle 1 through 5. He wanted to become for Michigan State's coaches what he had become for his family—dependable.

"He doesn't do anything outside of himself," assistant coach Dwayne Stephens says. "He doesn't try to bring the ball down the floor or dribble between his legs or shoot a fadeaway jump shot. He makes solid plays. As coaches, you preach all the time: Go for singles and not home runs. Xavier is an unbelievable hitter."

This season, Tillman was the Spartans' sixth man and their leading scorer off the bench through the middle of the Big Ten slate. Then, on Feb. 17, big man Nick Ward fractured his left hand, and Tillman was thrust into the starting lineup. He was ready. He doesn't have as deep of an arsenal of post-up moves as Ward, but he more than makes up for it as a willing screener and rebounder and as a high-percentage shooter. In his first start after Ward's injury, he posted a double-double against Rutgers. He's scored in double figures in all but two of Michigan State's 11 games since, all but one of them wins.

"Xavier does what he can do, and he does it efficiently," freshman wing Aaron Henry says. "His game is kind of quiet, but don't let him fool you. There aren't a lot of things he can't do. You haven't seen it all yet, but he'll come out of his shell soon, and you'll see how high his ceiling really is."

The increased workload has meant more recovery time after practice, but he hasn't let anything cut into family time. He still wakes up with Yanni at 6 every morning, and dances with her to clean versions of Cardi B as they get dressed and eat their cereal. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Todd works as a nanny, he takes Yanni to daycare before going to classes, practices and tutoring. Even though he knows she won't remember, he won't skip class because he doesn't want Yanni ever to second-guess the value of an education. And at night, Tillman is always home in time for Yanni's bedtime routine: He and Todd take turns reading a page each of Goodnight Moon until it's over, and then they take turns hugging and kissing Yanni until she stops asking for more. "She doesn't get told no too often," Todd says. "She normally gets at least five or six from each of us."

On typical Big Ten road trips, he'll only be gone for two nights, and Todd and Yanni can take that. But the NCAA tournament has been more of a challenge. By Day 3 or 4, Yanni will start to act out. If Todd asks her what's wrong, she'll say that she misses her daddy, so they'll FaceTime or watch his highlights on YouTube to hold her over. And when Yanni's asleep, Tillman and Todd plan their wedding, which will be May 18. He admits that she has done most of the work, but as with basketball, he steps in when he's asked to. He has picked out the colors for the groomsmen's tuxedos (dark blue) and the honeymoon spot (a cruise to the Bahamas).

At times, it can seem overwhelming, but Tillman says he feels like he gets far more support than he gives. "Tamia is really understanding," he says. "She doesn't pressure me to be home when I have to be at practice or work out. She knows that basketball is how I am trying to provide for us. And my teammates are so open with Yanni. I bring her with me to dinners or movies all the time, and they love being around her. She brings people together."

---

In the hours after the NCAA men's tournament bracket was revealed, Tillman and Winston took a walk in the Breslin Center. They stopped at the tunnel and stared at the court, talking about the season that had passed and the road that remained ahead. The Spartans had won the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships, but they were still slotted as a No. 2 seed and sent to a distant regional in Washington, D.C. Michigan State fans were fuming, but Tillman and Winston got exactly what they wanted.

"We're going to play Duke in the Elite Eight," Tillman told Winston, "and we're going to make some noise."

Last Saturday morning, after Michigan State had dominated LSU and Duke had survived Virginia Tech, Tillman and Winston sat next to each other at breakfast. They would have their chance at the Blue Devils the next night. They remembered the conversation from Selection Sunday. Then, in between bites of eggs, Winston told Tillman: "Beating Duke is gonna be big for our resumes." They both laughed.

On Sunday, Winston scored 20 points and dished 10 assists, and Tillman added 19 points, nine rebounds and 29 tough minutes defending Zion Williamson to help secure the win. After the Spartans' charter plane touched down in East Lansing, Tillman drove Winston home. As they sat in the parking lot that joins their buildings, they talked about what it would take to return back in another week with a title. "We came this far," Winston told Tillman. "We might as well win it all."

A few days later, Todd strapped Yanni into her car seat and picked up Winston's girlfriend, Erin, so they could make the 10-hour drive to Minneapolis together. Now, no matter when Michigan State's run ends, Tillman will be able to run into the arms of his family and do what he's done since he arrived in East Lansing—prepare for what's next.

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, who played college football at Michigan State, will address the Spartans on Friday before their Final Four matchup against Texas Tech the next day in Minneapolis.

Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press passed along the report:

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said he is expecting #Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, a former Spartans star, to address the team tomorrow at the Final Four.

— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) April 4, 2019

Cousins, who is 0-1 as a starter in the NFL postseason and was 1-2 in bowl games at Michigan State, will try to pump up the Spartans as they seek their third men's basketball national title in their 10th appearance in the Final Four.     

Michigan State's Tom Izzo knows what a second championship would mean for his legacy.

"I need to validate it for me, I don't need to validate it for them," Izzo told reporters Tuesday. "I have my own goals and dreams and I have my own aspirations of what I want to do. What I want to do is put Michigan State University in rare air."

Izzo would become the 16th head coach in men's college basketball history to win multiple titles if Michigan State is able to win two more games. The Spartans have reached seven Final Fours under Izzo but have only once won the national championship.

Izzo said he now understands there will always be critics of his Final Four performance, something he admits he once would have bristled at.

"I've learned that people that question you are going to question you, the haters are going to hate you," Izzo said "All I've got to make sure I do is what's best for my team and the university I work at. I want to do that each and every day."

The 2018-19 season has been one of Izzo's best coaching runs, as he's helped guide the Spartans despite injuries to their first Final Four since 2015. Perhaps most special in the run was Izzo's victory over Duke and Mike Krzyzewski, who has had Izzo's number throughout their respective careers. Michigan State is 2-11 against Duke under Izzo.

The Spartans enter this weekend's Final Four as slight favorites over Texas Tech, and they're the second favorite to win the title behind Virginia, per Vegas Insider.

There is no questioning the talent Duke's freshmen brought to the court every night this season, but Michigan State's experience prevailed in Sunday's Elite Eight clash in Washington D.C.

Hall of Famer and Michigan State product Magic Johnson told reporters he believes that reality is a victory for college basketball.

"College basketball won today. You see the team that's been together for a long time win, and maybe that will help guys to say 'well, I'm OK to stay, maybe I've got to work on my talent and my game.' Because Michigan State (has) got a team full of those guys, and they did OK today."

The Spartans had the experience edge during their 68-67 win that was defined by thrilling lead changes, clutch plays and a missed opportunity at the end of the game for one of the Blue Devils' freshmen.

Junior Cassius Winston controlled the pace of the entire contest from the Spartans' backcourt with 20 points, 10 assists, four steals and a mere one turnover, consistently answering Duke's runs with the perfectly timed play to flip momentum.

He joined Johnson and Draymond Green on an exclusive list:

Cassius Winston joins Magic Johnson (twice) and Draymond Green (twice) as the only Michigan State players with a 20-point, 10-assist game in the NCAA Tournament. pic.twitter.com/nAzBcfzlB2

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 31, 2019

It was senior Kenny Goins who hit the biggest shot of the game from beyond the arc to put the Spartans ahead for good in the final minute. Junior Nick Ward battled Zion Williamson down low, senior Matt McQuaid helped control the pace and mixed in an impressive reverse layup down the stretch, and sophomore Xavier Tillman added 19 points and nine rebounds.

"Experience matters," Izzo told reporters. "It really does."

It didn't appear to matter when Williamson dominated Michigan State on both ends of the floor for extended stretches with 24 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and three steals, but he was not the one to take Duke's final shot. Instead, freshman RJ Barrett missed a go-ahead three and then converted just one of two free throws after he was fouled down two on the Blue Devils' last possession.

As a result, Michigan State is headed to its 10th Final Four in program history and will face Texas Tech on Saturday.

The Spartans will have to slow down another youngster in sophomore Jarrett Culver, but their experience figures to be up to the task after conquering the mighty Blue Devils on Sunday.