Jeremy Fears Jr. is returning to Michigan State basketball. His decision changes everything. Definitely expectations. Possibly legacies.
Fears’, for one, Tom Izzo’s for another.
Oh, the MSU coach is a Hall-of-Famer and an icon in this state and one of the best college basketball coaches of his generation. He’s done more than most with less than most, though having less is his responsibility.
Still, his place in the book is inked. This doesn’t change with Fears’ return.
But with his return, the Spartans’ chances do change, as does Izzo’s quest to get back to a Final Four and chase that elusive second national title.
With his star point guard back in the fold, Izzo should have his best shot at a Final Four in seven years and his best chance at a title in a dozen years, since his 2013-14 squad looked like the best team in the country that season but couldn’t stay healthy.
Izzo had a promising squad in 2016 (Middle Tennessee State) and a hopeful team two years later (Ben Carter), but the 2018 group was too young and weren’t even the best team in the Big Ten that season.
Michigan was.
Neither of those MSU teams had the combination of experience, promising youngsters and potential future pros like this team will have, even accounting for 2018’s two lottery picks in Jaren Jackson Jr. and Miles Bridges.
That team may have had more overall talent, especially considering Cassius Winston was on the team, but timing is everything in college. Jackson and Bridges were more gifted and better built for the NBA, but Winston was a far better college player, and far more important to winning. He just didn’t get there until his junior year, the next season.
If Izzo has any regrets over his decades-long Hall-of-Fame run, not giving the ball to Winston as a sophomore might be right up there. But then hindsight and all of that, eh? Besides, Winston might not have been quite ready for the role as a sophomore. Just as Fears wasn’t quite ready for the NBA.
Again, timing.
With Fears, MSU has a chance
Some years, it doesn’t quite align. Some years, upstarts go crazy from deep and create upsets.
As good as the 2016 and 2018 MSU teams were, the 2019 team was better. Winston’s ascension propelled the leap. So did Xavier Tillman and Aaron Henry and Matt McQuaid and Kenny Goins, a future pro, a heady freshmen and a couple of now-or-never veterans who made countless now plays.
Izzo could have a similar mix this coming season, a mix that not even the 2019 team had now that Fears is officially back. He may not possess Winston’s shooting and ball skill, but he bends a court – on both ends – like few who’ve played at MSU under Izzo.
As long as he returns and is focused on nothing but winning – as he mostly showed last season – Fears has the chance to be Izzo’s post-modern version of Mateen Cleaves.
That he took his decision right up to the deadline on Wednesday, May 27, tells us how much he wants to get to the NBA. That he ultimately decided on another year in East Lansing tells you how much NIL has changed college sports.
Before schools could legally pay players, the second round of the NBA often won out over a return to college. Once Fears figured his chance of landing in the first round were slim, he knew his best option was to get paid as a Spartan, work on his game as a Spartan, try to lead the Spartans back to a place they haven’t been in what will be eight years.
That 2019 Final Four team was led by Winston, of course, a great college player who didn’t have the measurables – size, strength, athleticism – for the NBA. Fears is a great college player who doesn’t have a critical measurable yet, either: shooting, though he might in another year.
That’s what he’s counting on, and if you look at his shot – and his shooting – from the last month of last season, Fears isn’t wrong to count on that getting better.
Even if he doesn’t improve much from deep, he’ll have a better shot at sticking in the NBA than Winston did. Fears made noise last week when the draft testing portion of the NBA Combine shifted from drills to scrimmaging.
This shouldn’t surprise.
Fears is a gamer
It’s in that space where he thrives, and talks, and pushes, sometimes a bit too far, which is something else Fears will need to work on while he’s back at MSU next season. No more kickbacks to the opponent’s groins. No more losing his sense of the moment.
The Spartans have the roster and experience to get to places they haven’t been in a long time, and Fears can’t forget that, no matter the moment. Consider what he did a season ago, leading a shooting-deprived team with no other consistent shot creator to a 27-8 overall record, a 15-5 Big Ten record and a Sweet 16 appearance.
What he meant to MSU got overshadowed by his own antics and, to a degree, what the rival down the road did in its run to the NCAA title. Rightly so on U-M’s part. Not so much for his part. He can improve that and should.
Because if he does, his feel and toughness and fearlessness make him among the very best in the game, and as good as any guard Izzo has ever had.
Those qualities showed up in scrimmages last week, and no doubt made his decision trickier. He showed he can do Jeremy Fears things on a court with future pros. Ultimately, he chose to come back and deepen the bag of Jeremy Fears things.
A couple of years ago, his coach stood in a hallway outside a locker room in the Charlotte Hornets’ arena after the Spartans had just lost to North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Izzo was frustrated, defiant, and determined to adapt to a rapidly changing sport.
He was gonna get the program headed back in the right direction or die trying, he famously said, and he has, for the most part. The next year, MSU won the Big Ten and got to the Elite Eight. Last season, they were arguably better, but played in a tougher conference, eclipsed by an all-time team in Ann Arbor.
The Wolverines will start the season with a higher ranking and slightly more expectations this fall. Fears’ return gives the Spartans the chance to stay with them, and maybe make some noise of their own.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jeremy Fears Jr.’s return gives Tom Izzo best chance at title in years
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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