PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas– Miles Bridges became a celebrity long before he played his first college game.
Michigan State’s powerful 6-7 freshman forward found himself on Sporting News first team pre-season All American team and was named to the Wooden Award Top 50 for the Big Ten Spartans, who were looking for ways to reinvent themselves after National Player of the Year Denzel Valentine graduated and the young Spartans lost centers Ben Carter and Gavin Schilling indefinitely to knee injuries in the pre-season.
Bridges, who grew up in Flint and heard all the stories about the legendary Flintstones on Michigan State’s 2000 national championship team, has demonstrated he has big enough shoulders to carry the load for the Spartans through the rough spots. He went off for 22 points and 15 rebounds here last night– playing the best all around game of his young career– as Michigan State (3-2) defeated feisty St. John’s, 73-62, at the 3,900 seat Imperial Arena, a converted ball room, to advance to the semi-finals of the Battle for Atlantis tournament. The Spartans will play Big 12 power Baylor at 12 noon Thursday
“I am doing whatever coach wants me to do,” Bridges said. “wherever he wants to play me. I am here for others. If people double team me, then I can get my teammates the ball. That’s what I like to do– see my teammates score more points than I do.”
That would be nice, but it is not realistic on this team. Bridges has practiced at four different positions and has already turned into the Spartans’ first option on offense and will determine how well they do in a Big Ten that potential Top 10 teams in Indiana, Wisconsin and Purdue..
That would be nice, but it is not realistic on this team. Bridges has practiced at four different positions and has already turned into the Spartans’ first option on offense and will determine how well they do in a Big Ten that potential Top 10 teams in Indiana, Wisconsin and Purdue..
Bridges had to share center stage in this game with his teammate, 5-10 junior point guard Tum Tum Nairn, Jr., a native of the Bahamas who tied his career high with 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting and put an exclamation point on his performance with an sky rocketing slam dunk in the second half.
Nairn is a native of the Bahamas, growing up less than 10 minutes from the Atlantis. Prior to this week, most of his family have never watched him play. Nairn moved to the United States at the age of 13. He attended Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas, just outside Wichita, the same school that produced another Bahamian, 2016 Oklahoma All America guard Buddy Hield.
“It’s a blessing,” Nairn said. “My great grandmother, who is 80, were there, my grandfather, and father were all here. It’s something I don’t take for granted.”
All told, 100 of his family and friends showed up for the occasion. to mob him as he left the post game press conference for the hall way. They started partying in the stands as soon as Nairn threw down the first dunk of his career, then mobbed him as he walked into the hall way from the press conference. Izzo eventually took Nairn’s family into the team room where Izzo told the team Nairn’s father was celebrating his birthday and the players responded by signing Happy Birthday.
That should ease some of the pain..
This year’s Michigan State team is still a work in progress. But Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo is slowly putting together the pieces. Bridges, who has history of stretches of eye popping play, followed by stretches where he disappears, played his best all around game, shooting 9 for 18 and taking over a closely contested game, making a jumper and a three to fuel a 17-4 run to finish off the game after the Johnnies pulled within 50-49 on a jump shot by Lovett with 10:53 to play.
Izzo also got 9 points and 11 rebounds in just 12 minutes from his 6-8, 250-pound freshman Nick Ward, who may turn out to be the fix Izzo is looking for at center. Ward and Bridges combined to give the Spartans the strength and bulk they needed to score inside against a St. John’s team with three legitimate shot blockers who are 6-9 or taller. And Michigan State scored 41 points in the second half after Nairns got a shot of confidence and began pushing the ball up the floor and getting the ball inside against the Red Storm. .
The Johnnies (2-2), who have the size, shot blocking and guard play to be far more competitive in the Big East once they learn to share the ball.
Guard Marcus Lovett scored 20 points for St. John’s, but shot just 6-for-18. The Spartans’ defense also did a good job on freshman guard Shamorie Ponds, limiting him to 12 points on 4 of 12 shooting after he had scored 20 in his previous two games.
“Those guys are a load,” Izzo said. “We put more into them than you can believe,” Izzo said. “We guarded them with three guys.”
This time it was St. John’s coach Chris Mullin turn to feel the pain
“We tried to concentrate on moving the ball at the start and getting it inside,” he said. “We got good looks, but we didn’t make them. You have to keep going to that and hope these guys will come through. We had eight assists and that’s not really the game I want to play. We tried everything. We tried inside-outside; we tried pick-and-roll. I don’t think we had any fastbreak points the past two games. We got enough looks but we didn’t knock them down. When you shoot 30 percent, you’re not going to win a game.”
Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
