Tom Izzo tried to talk Miles Bridges into turning pro

Most Michigan State fans hoped Miles Bridges would return to school for his sophomore season - a choice he eventually made - but his head coach took a different approach leading up to the decision.

Tom Izzo noted on "The Sidelines" podcast with Evan Daniels of Scout that he actually tried to convince his star player to go pro.

"It was really bizarre," Izzo said, as transcribed by Aaron Torres of Fox Sports. "Most people won’t believe this, but I probably spent more time talking him into going (pro) than out of going, and to his credit, he did what he wanted to do. And he really could have made his decision (to stay) three weeks earlier. But we really held him off so we could do some research and talk to him and his mom, who kind of wanted him to go."

Izzo said Bridges wanted to come back to make a Final Four, but he reminded the guard there are no guarantees.

"The guy is an unbelievable kid," Izzo said. "He had his goals and what he wanted to achieve personally. We talked about, yeah he wants to get to a Final Four, every kid does. (Denzel) Valentine and those guys just two years, we had a Final Four team that got beat in the first game. So I had to tell him that."

Bridges would likely have been a lottery pick, but instead he'll bring his nearly 17 points and 8.3 rebounds per game back to East Lansing for 2017-18. Izzo probably isn't going to be too broken up about losing this argument.