GREEN & WHITE BASKETBALL

Miles Bridges says MSU 'the place to go'

Prized recruit says he decided he wanted to be a Spartan when Cassius Winston committed last month.

Chris Solari
Lansing State Journal

FLINT — Miles Bridges kept his secret hidden beneath the table in front of him.

He pulled out a hat that announced he would play at Michigan State. A few minutes later, his gray, hooded sweatshirt came off to reveal his fan-created, green, white and bronze shirt.

On the front read “#TheClass.” Written on the back were five last names.

Bridges made it 4 for 4 for Tom Izzo. Only one more of those players remains to land in what already might be the Spartans' biggest recruiting bonanza of Izzo's 20-plus years, a string of commitments that could rival some of the best groups in recent college basketball memory.

“We don’t want to be the new Kentucky,” Bridges said Saturday afternoon, “we want to be Michigan State. We want to be able to beat everybody.”

Izzo continued his recent string of recruiting victories in a place where he began building his college basketball empire. Bridges, a senior at Huntington Prep in West Virginia, made his announcement in his hometown of Flint that he would be heading to East Lansing next year.

The 6-foot-6 swingman, the eighth-ranked player in the 2016 class according to ESPN.com, picked the Spartans over Kentucky and Indiana. Bridges joins point guard Cassius Winston from Detroit (No. 29 overall by ESPN), shooting guard Josh Langford from Alabama (No. 17) and big man Nick Ward from Ohio (No. 39 overall) in Izzo’s 2016 class.

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Like Winston, Bridges said he plans to sign during the early period that begins Nov. 11. Bridges said when Winston committed Sept. 18, he wanted to follow and play alongside his friend.

“Ever since then, I was like, that's the place to go,” Bridges said. “I’ve been waiting to get this off my chest for a month now.”

Recruiting site 247sports.com ranked MSU as No. 1 in the nation after Winston’s commitment, as has Scout.com. About an hour after Bridges made his announcement, ESPN’s recruiting reporter Jeff Borzello tweeted that his site now has elevated the Spartans to the nation’s best class as well.

“This is an important get,” Leigh Alan Klein, the CEO of Five-Star Basketball camps who also writes for SLAM magazine, said on Lansing's The Game 730 AM. “Not too long ago, we were talking about Tom Izzo’s inability to land this high level talent, the McDonald’s (All-American). And now, here he is, in position to really corral just an incredible class.”

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Media reports also have the Spartans still in the mix for ESPN's No. 3 overall player in the class, 6-7 forward Josh Jackson from Southfield. Jackson currently plays at Prolific Prep in California. Bridges said he and Jackson have been friends since they were on the 11-and-under AAU circuit.

“We used to play against each other, and we would go at each other every game,” said Bridges, who said he also has known Winston and Langford for a while and met Ward over the summer. “(Jackson) has been my boy ever since. We’re really close.”

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Landing Bridges continues Izzo’s Flint pipeline, which has included, among others, Antonio Smith, Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and Charlie Bell from his earliest Final Four teams.

As a junior, Bridges averaged 15.7 points and 10.6 rebounds a game in his second season at Huntington Prep after leaving Flint Southwestern High following his freshman year. He also had a standout summer for Detroit team The Family on the AAU circuit.

“He’s an incredible athlete,” Klein said of Bridges. “He’s a guy that, with further development, really we could be talking about among the next, high-level lottery picks in the NBA. …

“This is, if you will, the result of a magical season last year – an improbable run to the Final Four that puts you in the living room with top prospects, saying, ‘Look, this is what we did with no McDonald’s-level kids. Imagine if we get you.’”

About 100 people were in the Steve Schmidt Gymnasium on Mott Community College’s campus Saturday to watch Bridges pick MSU. One of them was Smith, wearing his own Spartan attire and glowing with his own hometown pride.

“He came to my showcase event, which I hosted last year for some high school people. I was like, ‘You don’t have to do that,’ but he did out of respect,” said Smith, who coached against Bridges during his freshman year of high school. “That shows you the character of the person, that he’d come back to his community and do something positive.”