EAST LANSING — Did Jeremy Fears Jr. trip another opponent? Illinois coach Brad Underwood now says no, but that won’t stop the debate.
In the first half of the Michigan State vs. Illinois game at the Breslin Center on Saturday, Feb. 7, MSU was on a fastbreak when Fears fired a pass to the left wing.
Seconds after the pass, Illinois’ David Mirkovic was running up the court and fell and went down hard to the floor after tripping on Fears’ foot.
Underwood was furious immediately after the play and called for a review. A lengthy review determined it wasn’t intentional, and the game went on, but that didn’t stop the discourse.
Underwood took a different stance after the game, saying “there was nothing on the trip.”
He called it a judgement call and said “he stops, and that’s what he does,” before complimenting his crafty and smart play.
After Mirkovic fell, Fears got the ball back and passed to Jaxon Kohler who hit an open 3.
That’s when Underwood started losing it on the referee and shortly after called a timeout for the review.
The refs deemed that there was nothing to support a technical on Fears, but after the last two games in which Fears was called out by Michigan coach Dusty May for “dangerous” plays and then got a technical for a kick to a Minnesota defender’s groin, in addition to other questionable plays, he’s likely not going to get the benefit of the doubt.
Do you think Fears purposely tripped Mirkovic?
Here’s the replay from the Fox broadcast:
Andrew Birkle is an assistant sports editor for the Free Press. Contact him via email at abirkle@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Did Jeremy Fears Jr. trip another opponent in MSU game vs Illinois?
Reporting by Andrew Birkle, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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