The No. 2 Spartans routed Illinois 81-61 at the Breslin Center to clinch at least a share of the Big Ten championship on the last home game of the season. MSU has a chance to win the conference outright for the first time since 2009 with a win against Wisconsin on Sunday. The program was presented the trophy and raised a banner after the win.

Tuesday also marked the last-ever home game for seniors Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr., Gavin Schilling and Ben Carter, who started for the first time this season. 

It might have been the last game at the Breslin for Bridges and freshman standout Jaren Jackson Jr. Both are projected by CBS, Sports Illustrated and others to be lottery picks in the upcoming NBA draft in June. 

“I haven’t really thought about that,” Bridges, who scored a team-high 19 points, said while smirking. “My only thoughts were on winning and sending the seniors off right.”

With 1:10 remaining against the Illini,  Bridges left the game and waved to the ecstatic Breslin crowd, moments before the seniors kissed the Spartan head at mid-court and exited the game. During the postgame senior night celebration, head coach Tom Izzo, the three seniors and Bridges all got a chance to thank the crowd for their support.

Now, almost a year after the announcement of Bridges's return, the same questions are being asked of whether Bridges will stay or begin his professional career. Just like last year, he’s staying hushed. 

“(It felt) like yesterday,” Bridges said of his gathering at Sparty. “Now it’s my last game at the Breslin for the season. It’s tough.”

Izzo admitted postgame Bridges hasn’t even talked about his future. That’s why Izzo said Bridges — or Jackson — didn’t kiss the Spartan helmet.

“I think it would take away from what he still has to accomplish and just put more pressure on him,” Izzo said. “When they started chanting, ‘one more year,’ I was chanting, ‘thank God for this year.’ I did think about it, it just has very seldom been done.”

Bridges’ yearning to bring a championship to East Lansing is the same reason Jackson signed with the Spartans. 

“It’s something a lot of people don’t ever get to say they’ve done and people don’t get to say the opportunity to even try,” said Jackson, a 6-foot-11 forward from Carmel, Indiana. “So it’s something we want to do for everyone who played here before and everybody who believed us since the start of the season.”

Tuesday may not have been Jackson’s best offensive showing, but the standout scored eight points, four rebounds and tallied five blocks to give him 100 for the season. With the game tied at 21 in the first half, Jackson spun through traffic and finished a one-handed dunk and drew a foul to complete a 3-point play.

On the next play, Jackson swatted an Illini shot to mark his 13th game with at least four blocks. 

Izzo called Jackson, who just turned 18 in September, a special player, but said he needs to polish some things up. Jackson only played 18 minutes because of foul trouble, and is still “a work in progress, and the work is getting better each and every week.”

Jackson, much like Bridges, is unsure of his future.

“I mean, obviously everybody likes to think about it themselves, but I wasn’t really thinking about myself in any sort of way,” Jackson said. “Obviously, the time will come where after the season I have to think of it, but right now I’m just happy for them.”

MSU has three more guaranteed games left, beginning with the trip to play Wisconsin, the Big Ten Tournament and the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans, however, are still confident there’s much more basketball to be played.

They also think there will be more banners to raise and trophies to hoist.

“There’s no question that they’re going to have some decisions to make, and when I think about it that way I feel good about it, not bad about it,” Izzo said on Monday. “I feel good. I feel like they have given me everything I could ask, and they’ve done it in a very unselfish (way) — and some humility.”