EAST LANSING — Cassius Winston took the pass, picked up a head of steam and drove the left side of the lane.

Nick Ward cut down the middle. Seeing his big man running the court alongside him, Winston slithered between Ward and his defender and bounced a behind-the-back pass. Ward caught it in stride and slammed.

They connected again for a layup. Then Winston darted to the basket and scooped in a bucket of his own.

Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser recognized what they were witnessing. They and the 1979 Michigan State Spartans rose to their feet in approval.

That was the scene to start the second half Saturday, as No. 9 MSU raced away from the Gophers to a 79-55 victory to snap a three-game losing streak.

Credit Johnson and his group of national champions with yet another assist to coach Tom Izzo’s program.

Izzo challenged his two stars during practice leading up to the game. And both Winston and Ward got similar edicts from the alumni who returned to remember their own glory.

Johnson had been talking to Ward recently and gave him advice to help refocus the junior forward, who shook his recent funk with a 22-point, nine-rebound, high-energy effort. He posted deep in the paint and ran the floor hard.

“He's an NBA legend, so anything he says I have to listen,” Ward said of Magic. “It's an opportunity of a lifetime, and I had to take advantage of that and play well. To play in front of a great like him, it's something I will never forget.”

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Ward’s resurgence allowed Winston, despite first-half foul trouble, to run the break and push the ball. Winston threaded a long bounce pass through traffic to Kyle Ahrens cutting on the wing for a dunk a little later, looking like the passer Izzo once said could become MSU’s best passer since Magic.

In the locker room after the game, Winston sported a “Showtime vs. Everybody” shirt. He’s young enough that he didn’t even immediately recognize the coincidence with Johnson watching. He also received high praise from the Los Angeles Lakers’ president of basketball operations.

“Oh, he’s outstanding," Johnson said of Winston. "He’s one of the best point guards in all of college basketball, if not the best. I think he’s got leadership, he can score, he can assist, he’s poised. He’s been an awesome leader for Michigan State basketball, and he’s one of the best in college basketball.”

Johnson’s 1979 team lost four of its six January games that season, then recovered to win 10 straight and 15 of its final 16 games. That included a win in the NCAA regional final over Notre Dame, which sent MSU to the Final Four and an eventual championship victory over Larry Bird’s then-unbeaten Indiana State team.

“That’s what we’re all chasing,” Winston said, “We’re chasing that type of legacy here.”

Johnson recalled the pregame scene in MSU’s locker room before the game against the Irish and Jud Heathcote’s dislike for Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps. The Spartans’ coach, who died in 2017, demanded Johnson turn the music back on after he walked into the locker room — normally, Heathcote wanted it shut off when he entered.

After a few more minutes, the music went silent again. Heathcote discarded any lengthy hype or prep speech. He delivered nine words: “Let’s just go out there and kick their ass.”

“You should’ve saw us," Johnson said. "That was the first time Jud ever did that. … He wanted us to win so bad. And we took on his personality, man.”

That is something Magic believes Winston can do to help this team. Much like how 20 years ago, when the 1979 Spartans reconvened for their 20-year reunion before Mateen Cleaves’ team played Michigan, Johnson passed along advice to the current point guard in charge.

Emulate Izzo’s demanding tenor, like he took on Heathcote’s perfectionist persona.

“I think he should, because then the team takes on the personality,” Johnson said of Winston. “I took on Jud’s, so everyone followed that.”

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That 1999 group surged to Izzo’s first Final Four and the program’s first since Johnson and Kelser, then won the national title a year later. Much of it was because Cleaves became a physical extension on the court of Izzo’s basketball brain on the sideline.

Johnson met with Cleaves before that Michigan game Jan. 9, 1999. He told him to get back to providing the Flintstones swagger.

It was a watershed moment that season.

Cleaves did that and took a technical foul for excessive celebration late in MSU’s 81-67 win over the Wolverines that day. He told reporters later the Spartans could not lose in front of the 1979 team.

Johnson provided both Winston and Ward with similar messages Saturday.

“I just had to go back to being Nick Ward and play the game the way I know how,” Ward said.

Said Winston, “(Magic) talked a lot about getting in transition — that’s where I’m at my best at, that’s where this team is at its best at. Just leading these guys, being vocal, feeding guys confidence and the team is gonna go as I’m going.”

Which leads back to that Magic-esque pass from Winston to Ward. The junior point guard said he was a little nervous about making such a flashy dish.

“But I had the angle,” he said with a chuckle. “I liked it. I thought it was a nice pass.”

That ability to blitz an opponent on the run is something this team shares with the 1979 champions.

“The way we played, before Showtime with the Lakers, we were Showtime,” Johnson said. “Man, the way we played the game was just awesome. We had everything. It’s hard to find a team that had everything.”

This team has a way to go to reach that. It is missing the outside shooting of Joshua Langford, who is done for the year after last week's foot surgery. That ’79 group had its own foot problem, overcoming its third star Jay Vincent’s injury during the NCAA tournament.

But when Ward plays like a hybrid of Kelser and Vincent, and Matt McQuaid resembles Mike Brkovich with a shooting performance like Saturday, this group has the talent to be elite.

And the belief from their elders to do so.

“Michigan State will turn it around,” Johnson said. “It’s tough. Our league is tough. This is a tough league. Everybody thought that because we got off to this great start and Michigan got off to a hot start that both of us would run away with it. But people forget there are some great teams that play in the big ten, and they have been showing up lately. …

“You have to every night strap ‘em up when you’re in the Big Ten. But I think this only makes Michigan State get better, to end the season going to the Big Ten tournament and then the NCAA tournament.”

In the locker room after MSU’s much-needed win Saturday, Kelser delivered the team’s pregame chant to the current Spartans, spelling out the word “potential.” It was something Magic wanted to hear again, one more time.

Forty years later, it fits the Spartans once again. The challenge is now for this team to reach it like their predecessors in 1979 and ’99 did.

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Contact Chris Solari at csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.

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