Roundball recap: MSU basketball takes down North Florida

One down, a lot more to go.

Michigan State kicked off the season in emphatic fashion with a 98-66 win over hated rival North Florida. Man, you just have to hate those Ospreys.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the game I’m sure you didn’t even ask for.

-Cassius Winston was a filthy, filthy man in the win. His passing was out of this world and we can look forward to that all season. Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson may be the biggest names on this team, but I can easily see Winston being a reason for victory in at least five games this year.

His selflessness was incredible — seven assists before even attempting a shot — and he was smart with his shot selection as he went 3-4 on his way to 12 points. Winston had a flaming hot start to the season.

-Josh Langford looked solid yesterday, and what stuck out to me the most was his aggressiveness driving to the hoop. If that’s going to be part of his game now, I feel even worse for other teams.

-Jaren Jackson looked ... timid out there on offense to start? I guess that’s the word I want to use?

Nothing to worry about at all, and I’m sure it was jitters, but Jackson slowly weened his way into the game on Friday night on the offensive end. On defense he was still a monster right off the get-go, giving the Spartans four blocks.

-Holy crap is this team deep. It’s crazy when there’s a blowout win, Izzo is playing his bench players and that still consists of players like Gavin Schilling, Matt McQuaid and Tum Tum Nairn.

The person who’s the happiest about this is undoubtedly Nick Ward. He must be thrilled to not be the entire front court this season.