Michigan State basketball secured a massive offseason win through Jeremy Fears announcing his return. Now coach Tom Izzo and the Spartans have the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten Player of the Year.
Fears received the massive preseason honor on Monday. Which also landed him on the All-Big Ten team.
He's the only member of the Spartans to earn his name in the latter category, which was a unanimous decision by voters. But he earns a major chance to continue Izzo's lineage of producing star guards out of East Lansing.
Fears impacted the March Madness team on both ends of the floor. He sliced through defenses in hitting 15.2 points per game. But he became a valuable distributor too, dishing out 9.4 assists a night.
Article Continues BelowMichigan State watched him blossom into a stout defender too who could pick the basketball. Fears pulled off 1.3 steals per night in showing a knack for reading where the basketball was bouncing to, then claiming it as his own.
Many fans and analysts believed Fears would entertain entering the NBA Draft following his stellar 2025-26. Except Fears opted to pivot back to the Spartans, winning back the fanbase in the process. He's now expected to garner renewed pre-draft attention in his return.
Izzo and MSU, meanwhile, pulled off a huge College Basketball Recruiting win right before the upcoming season tips off. Five-star Antonio Pemberton chose the Spartans over numerous blue blood programs back on Sept. 18. This move gives the Spartans the heir apparent to Fears once his CBB career wraps up, as Pemberton stars at point guard.