Michigan State basketball: Jeremy Fears’ absence is looming large right now

Losing Jeremy Fears Jr. for the season hurt at the time, but it’s especially looming large now for Michigan State basketball.

For the first time in what feels like forever, Michigan State basketball has been fortunate with the injury bug this season. They’ve only had two substantial injuries, with the first being Jaxon Kohler missing the first half of the season. The second, however, has been Jeremy Fears, who was shot in the leg this past December.

Fears is someone who slotted in perfectly as a backup point guard option for this team. He likely never would’ve become the starter, but he was already seeing a lot of minutes off the bench and that likely would’ve continued. But his terrible incident derailed his season, and Izzo has confirmed he will not be back this year.

Losing any player to injury is significant, but Michigan State is really feeling the effects of not having Fears available right now.

MSU could really use Fears right now

As I mentioned, Jeremy would have never taken AJ Hoggard’s starting point guard spot permanently. We’ve seen Izzo bench Hoggard for a game, but he always starts the very next outing. But Fears is someone that MSU desperately needs on the court.

It’s no secret that Hoggard is an extremely inconsistent player. He was elite in the Spartans’ win over Illinois but has been almost nonexistent since then. Tre Holloman is Hoggard’s current backup, and even he has been inconsistent this year as well. This is why Michigan State really could use Fears right now.

When AJ is struggling like he has been, Fears would be another option for Izzo to bring off the bench. Right now he only has Holloman, and there’s nothing wrong with putting Tre in, but it would be even better if Izzo had two backup options at his disposal.

Fears is also someone who never takes a play off. AJ struggles with his body language and focus. That wasn’t a problem with Fears in his short time in East Lansing. Fears also brings elite leadership to the team that not many freshmen, or anyone for that matter, have. Sure, he can still be a leader off the court, but it would be more beneficial to have that on the court.

Unfortunately for Michigan State, Fears will not be back this season. He will do just fine next year in a more prominent role, but there will always be question marks about what this team could have been with Fears. Maybe they win a couple more games, maybe they go on a longer run in March. There’s no telling what would’ve happened, but I think we all can agree the team would be a lot better with Fears on the court.