Chris Solari

Detroit Free Press

EAST LANSING – Miles Bridges returned to Flint to announce he was coming to Michigan State.

He went to the center of campus tonight to declare he planned to stay there.

With about 1,000 fans chanting his name, Bridges said he will return for his sophomore year and bypass a chance to enter the NBA Draft and potentially be a high first-round lottery pick.

“I got some unfinished business here. I’m gonna say I want to stay,” Bridges said as the crowd erupted him with cheers. “I’ve talked it over with my mom and my dad, they support me, my sister. I just want to thank y’all again.

“I can’t wait for next year. I have personal goals here. I want to win a national championship.”

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Bridges had until 11:59 p.m. on April 23 to decide whether to enter the NBA Draft. He said he had heard from NBA people Izzo had contacted that he could land somewhere between the eighth and 14th pick in this year’s draft, which will be held June 22.

Instead, he now will spend the summer and next season trying to join Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves in school lore and bring a third national title back to East Lansing. And Bridges did so with a legend-making moment at the iconic and historical epicenter of MSU’s athletic complex, The Spartan statue.

MSU coach Tom Izzo said he drove Bridges around the surrounding campus streets Monday night after the MSU athletic department’s Academic Excellence Gala. Izzo prodded his “blue-collar superstar” about the reasons he should turn pro and why he wants to stay.

“I asked him at the end, ‘Are you getting tired of me?’ He said, ‘No, I’m not tired of you. I’m just tired of the same questions,’” Izzo said. “I kind of knew then. I thought he had really thought it out. I think it was something he thought about all year. And yet, I don’t think he put a lot of time into thinking about it.

“There’s nothing wrong with being happy.”

Bridges said he had made up his mind somewhere around midseason and let his roommate, fellow freshman Joshua Langford, and captain Tum Tum Nairn know about his decision first before informing the rest of his teammates this week. Izzo did not know for sure that Bridges was coming back until Wednesday.

The coach then talked to Bridges’ mother, Cynthia, that night and Thursday morning. Cynthia Bridges told the Free Press on March 28 that “it would be so easy for me – NBA.” She arrived late Thursday after getting delayed in traffic but sat next to her son on the stage. Miles occasionally would put his head on her shoulder and whisper in her ear on their own island as the abnormal press conference swirled around them.

Cynthia said “it has been hard for me” that Miles chose to return to MSU instead of turning pro, but added that the two of them prayed about it together and determined “that God has this.”

“I know I made the statement that I would go to the NBA. But I’m not the basketball player, Miles is,” she said. “I support him 100%.”

It’s a major coup for Izzo in pursuit of his second national championship. Bridges’ decision means Izzo’s best recruiting class – which also includes Langford, NickWard and Cassius Winston – will remain together for a second season. The Spartans also are adding highly regarded big men Jaren Jackson Jr. and Xavier Tillman and could have two open scholarships to fill.

Bridges was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and second-team All-Big Ten after leading the Spartans with 16.9 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. The 6-foot-7 forward finished with 473 points this season to rank fourth in MSU freshman scoring over his 28 games. His 232 rebounds rank third for a program rookie, despite missing seven games with a foot injury in December. He also was a Sporting News Freshman All-American.

With Bridges back, MSU will return 78% of its scoring and 81% of its rebounding from this season’s 20-15 team that made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“He’s sacrificing millions of dollars. Eighth-to-14th pick, that’s a lot of money,” Ward said. “It means a lot. He sacrificed his future for us. That’s a dream of his, a dream of all of ours, so that means a lot to us. This is a brotherhood. …

“I feel like next year’s gonna be ecstatic, a great season. We got all the parts.”

Izzo also continues to pursue three high-end recruits in five-star guard Brian Bowen and big man Brandon McCoy, who are both playing in this weekend’s Jordan Brand Classic in Brooklyn, New York, and four-star guard Mark Smith to round out the Spartans’ 2017 class. MSU is still waiting to learn about Ben Carter’s NCAA appeal for a sixth year and could have one or two scholarships left.

But the biggest recruiting victory was keeping Bridges in town for at least one more year.

“I do think the beauty of this,” Izzo said, “is this was something that didn’t happen in one day or one week. The only thing that happened is a lot of us tried to make sure that he knew everything he was a doing. And we didn’t give him enough credit that he’s a lot smarter than a lot of us are.

“I say that with great respect. Because he never acted like he wanted to leave.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!