“Unofficial visit.” Those were Bridges’ exact words. … He was in eighth grade then.
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So Bridges is no stranger to precocity. That he scored 21 points in his college basketball debut Friday night in a 67-65 loss to Arizona in Honolulu might have been jarring to those who’d yet to see him — especially that crazy reverse dunk that nearly broke the floor a little more than 3 minutes in — but this is what Bridges has done throughout his not-yet-very-long life. He shows up, he balls out.
“I had a really big head back then, so I had to humble myself,” Bridges said with a laugh, when Sporting News mentioned the peculiarity of a player so young entering the recruiting game. “As soon as I went up to (Izzo), I got to take a picture with him. And then when they started to recruit me, it was really crazy. I know all the Flintstones, all the history and stuff. It was a great honor to me to be recruited by a Hall of Fame coach. Izzo, he’s a great man.”
Bridges tends to call his coach “Izzo.” He does this casually, not disrespectfully, but it does underscore that he is not just any player. He is different from every Michigan State player who came before, even Zach Randolph, who was one-and-done before such a term had been coined. Randolph entered an MSU program so loaded with veterans that he wasn’t a starter as the Spartans, in 2001, reached their third consecutive Final Four.
A versatile 6-7, 230-pound forward from Flint, Mich., Bridges has worked in practice at four different positions and might play any or all in the course of this season. Or the course of a single game. He will be Michigan State’s best player. He will lead the team in scoring. He will lead the team in rebounding. He might even — certainly to a lesser extent than point guard Tum Tum Nairn — lead the team. He said Izzo is “depending on him to be a leader,” even though Bridges owns 37 minutes of college basketball experience.
“This year, we need him to be that scorer,” Izzo told SN. “I think he is ready for that. I think he will be that. But I think we’ll have a bonus because he’s also a guy that can check, that is one of the more well-conditioned guys. He has tried to take on a little bit of a leadership role. I wouldn’t say that’s his strength, but it’s something he feels he needs to do.”
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As the Spartans prepare for Tuesday’s game against Kentucky at Madison Square Garden in the annual Champions Classic doubleheader, with a lot of the preparation involving just getting their behinds from Hawaii to NYC, it has been made clear this iteration of Spartans represents a dramatic departure in form. Izzo collected his most highly regarded recruiting class at least since Randolph and Marcus Taylor arrived. And maybe his best class ever.
Because there’ve been injuries, and because Deyonta Davis unexpectedly left for the NBA draft after a single season, and because seniors such as Matt Costello and Denzel Valentine had exhausted their eligibility, Izzo needed a strong class and needs that class to deliver. Especially Bridges, a lefty who can shoot it pretty well, handle the ball well enough to launch a straight-line drive, and attack the rim monstrously, and who passes effectively and has an excellent understanding of the game.
“My dream school was always Kentucky,” Bridges said. “But once I took a visit out to Michigan State … I mean, I knew Izzo for a long time because he recruited me since I was young.
“It was just great on my visit, because I actually got to know everybody on the team, and they treated me like I was family. That’s what I wanted at a university. Because I knew I was going to have trouble getting to know people, and they would help me with that. I mean, people knew me, but I wanted to know people. I’m not really that outgoing to people. I knew I had to get out of my shell.”
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The truth of the one-and-done phenomenon over the past half-dozen years is a few schools have managed such players well, either building their philosophy around these talents or incorporating them easily into successful teams. A few schools have had such recruits and managed to excel even without the players always reaching great heights. And a lot have wrestled with the uncommon challenges such players present.
Like Ben Simmons last year at LSU, to use the most obvious example.
“Ben, he is a great player. I’m so sorry for what happened to him,” Bridges said. “But Izzo knows what he’s doing. He’s going to put me in a place to succeed. I’m not really worried about where he puts me; right now he’s playing me at four positions. Anywhere he puts me at, I’ll be able to do what I can to succeed.”
Bridges said he is learning to play every play “like it’s my last on defense.” He acknowledges he could afford to be “lazy” on offense in high school, but that’s changing, too. “I can’t be lazy with Izzo, because I’ll be on the bench.”
Michigan State has been close in the past to landing a number of the one-and-done types, the most obvious example being Jabari Parker, who instead signed at Duke and became a first-team All-American in 2014.
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“Most of those kids were pretty good kids, too,” Izzo said. “With this kid, we’ve known him since he was in seventh grade. I didn’t feel like it was as long a shot. We were on top of some things, he was from our state. The way he handled his recruiting, it wasn’t a sideshow.
“It’s been real interesting. Because I’ve had great players, but he is so multi-skilled. I’ve thrown a lot at him, and I’ve liked that he’s been really coachable. But I do got to let him go. He can do more things than most guys I’ve had. If he gets even with you, he can score. Most guys have to get ahead of you. There’s other players in the country ahead of him in some ways, but I don’t know if there’s a lot of more complete — potentially more complete — players.
“He’s got versatility, he’s got a brain and he’s got humility. Which a lot of top-10 players don’t have.”
