In the finals of the Victory Bracket of the PK80 Invitational, Michigan State will take on North Carolina. Who has the edge in this game by the positions?
Point guard: Cassius Winston vs. Joel Berry
It was questionable whether the senior leader Joel Berry would be available for this game after injuring his hand in an accidental off the court incident involving a video game. However, he’s been great in his return, averaging 18.5 ppg in his few games back.
He’s one of the couple of players who was featured in last year’s national title game, scoring 22 points in the win over Gonzaga. He’s an outstanding three-point shooter and will have the responsibility of leading the Tar Heels back to the NCAA Tournament.
His counterpart is the sophomore Cassius Winston, who, after sharing the primary distributing duties last season, is the undisputed point guard this time around. He had his ups and downs a year ago, but the talent has always been there.
In his last game, that talent burst through with a career-high 28 points in the semi-final win over UConn. If the backcourt can be as consistent as the perimeter, then the Spartans will truly be title contenders.
Coming into the season, this looked to be a complete mismatch, benefiting the Tar Heels. However, between Berry still getting right after missing some time and Winston’s continual growth, this all of a sudden becomes much more balanced. At the end of the day, one of these young men is a national champion, while the other is trying to be.
Edge: Berry