Michigan State basketball star Miles Bridges made a bit of a surprising move when he decided to return to school for his sophomore season despite being considered a potential lottery pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
And in an interesting twist, it turns out that Spartans head coach Tom Izzo actually advised Bridges to make a different choice.
While Izzo will benefit from having his star player back on the court for another year in East Lansing, Izzo revealed that he actually tried convincing Bridges to go pro.
Izzo discussed Bridges’ decision on “The Sidelines” podcast with Evan Daniels of Scout.com.
“It was really bizarre,” Izzo said, via Aaron Torres of Fox Sports. “Most people won’t believe this, but I probably spent more time talking him into going (pro) than out of going, and to his credit, he did what he wanted to do. And he really could have made his decision (to stay) three weeks earlier. But we really held him off so we could do some research and talk to him and his mom, who kind of wanted him to go.
“The guy is an unbelievable kid. He had his goals and what he wanted to achieve personally. We talked about, yeah he wants to get to a Final Four, every kid does. (Denzel) Valentine and those guys just two years, we had a Final Four team that got beat in the first game. So I had to tell him that.”
In the end, it all worked out in Izzo’s favor and Bridges followed his heart.
Now that he will be back for another year, he can chase his goal of reaching the Final Four. Last season, Bridges averaged 16.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
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