East Lansing — Michigan State needed to be Michigan State again, and to do that, it needed its best players to not just be good, but to be great.
Tom Izzo didn’t shy away from it this week as the ninth-ranked Spartans were mired in a three-game losing skid — for Michigan State to turn things around it needed all it could get from Cassius Winston and Nick Ward.
He challenged his best players and they responded. The junior tandem, along with senior guard Matt McQuaid, combined to lead Michigan State to a 79-55 victory over Minnesota on Saturday at the Breslin Center.