EAST LANSING, MICH. – The Gophers were fortunate to open the Big Ten season against a Miles Bridges-less Michigan State team.
They were not so lucky to have to play the Spartans again after Bridges was back – and feeling like his old self.
Bridges missed seven games, including his team's overtime win at Minnesota on Dec. 27 with an ankle injury. But he returned to form with a 16-point first half that was too much for the Gophers to overcome in a 65-47 loss to the Spartans Wednesday night at Breslin Center.
"I just got it all off my chest after I made my first three," Bridges said. "I'm good driving the lanes - I did all that today. It was once I hit my first three, that's when I really got into the game."
The 6-foot-7 freshman scored just 10 points combined in his first two games back from injury against Rutgers and Penn State last week.
But Bridges looked like a completely different player from the start against the Gophers.
"Miles played OK," Spartans coach Tom Izzo joked. "He was a man-child that first half. He did a lot of things. It was kind of funny because last week after the game, his mother texted me and said that he was too casual and not aggressive. She said that he had to get back to beast mode. So I give her credit for getting him back to beast mode, but did you see how tired he got in the first four minutes? He almost died."
Bridges was full of energy to begin the game when he dunked emphatically over Jordan Murphy on his first basket. He scored six straight points to get the Spartans off to 9-2 start. Minnesota responded after going behind 11 to cut it to seven behind Dupree McBrayer, who scored all of his 11 points in the first half.