Michigan State basketball: Jeremy Fears likely out for the season

Michigan State basketball is likely to be out for the remainder of the season after suffering a gunshot wound on Friday.

On Friday night, Michigan State basketball freshman point guard Jeremy Fears suffered a non-life-threatening injury after being shot in the leg back at his hometown. Fears has undergone a successful surgery and is recovering from his injuries.

Unfortunately for the Spartan freshman, it sounds like his season might be over.

Jeremy Fears might be done for the year

Jeremy Fears Sr. confirmed with an Illinois basketball radio host that his son will likely miss three months after his surgery. To provide a little context, Jeremy was heavily recruited by Illinois out of high school and they are also recruiting his younger brother Jeremiah Fears as well. So that explains why Illinois basketball representatives are finding out information about this incident.

IlliniGuys Exclusive: Jeremy Fears Expected to Miss Three Months After Surgery@KedPrince4, who has had a long relationship with @jeremy_fears' father, spoke to him about his son's conditions and has a message from the family.

No $ paywall.https://t.co/jlGtA3ZwM5

— Mike Cagley (@MikeCagley) December 24, 2023

It is never fun to see athletes suffer season-ending injuries for any reason. But this incident just feels different to me, and obviously not in a good way. Whenever a player suffers an injury during a game or practice it always has that sense of, “injuries happen in sports and it’s part of the game.”

That by no means is me saying injuries aren’t a bad thing, but injuries happen all the time in sports and you just have to move on.

But this is different. This was an act of violence and a non-sports-related injury. Jeremy was reportedly, “at a gathering with 20-25 friends talking and playing cards.” Athletes aren’t supposed to suffer season-ending injuries this way. No injury is ever “fair” but this just feels worse than a normal injury.

Impact on Michigan State’s season

Fears is averaging 3.5 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game this season. He is also coming off arguably his best game as a Spartan in MSU’s blowout win over Stony Brook. Fears may have only scored one point, but he had a career-high 10 assists in the game.

Fears has been averaging 15.3 minutes per game, so others will have to step up in his absence. One option for Tom Izzo is more playing time for Tre Holloman. Tre has proven to be a solid contributor for us this season so he could be seeing more time as a backup point guard this year. Izzo also has the option to move Malik Hall to the three, which opens up more minutes for guys like Coen Carr, Xavier Booker, and Jaxon Kohler when he returns at the four.

Jeremy Fears Sr. final comment

To end this article, I’d like to share a quote from Jeremy’s dad.

“I want to thank everyone who reached out to family, the Michigan State staff, and players along with Coach Tom Izzo who put his family holiday plans on hold to try and be here with us, and the Illinois staff who I’ve known for years.”

We all need to come together at a time like this. Basketball doesn’t matter when an act of violence like this occurs. Spartan Nation has done a great job supporting Jeremy and his family since this incident, and I know we will continue to do the same.

Michigan State basketball is back in action Friday night as Indiana State comes to town in our non-conference finale.