Tulsa, Okla. — Miles Bridges was in the car on his way back to Flint when he heard the shocking news. Middle Tennessee had just stunned No. 2 seed Michigan State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March, abruptly ending the Spartans’ national-championship hopes.
For Bridges, then the centerpiece of Tom Izzo’s best-ever recruiting class, the double-barrel disappointment was impossible to avoid. His girlfriend at the time, Mychelle Johnson, was a women’s basketball recruit committed to play for Middle Tennessee. And on social media, he says, “a lot of people were going at me — especially Michigan fans.