After finishing the regular season 25-6, you’d have to assume that Michigan State basketball features at least a couple of All-Big Ten players.
That assumption would be correct.
According to a leak on UCLA’s site, the All-Big Ten teams have been revealed as well as Big Ten Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Freshman of the Year.
Only two Spartans received any type of postseason award recognition, however.
Per a Big Ten release on UCLA's site, MSU's Jeremy Fears Jr. is first-team All-Big Ten and Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg is the league's player of the year. Jaxon Kohler is honorable mention. U-M's Aday Mara is defensive player of the year. pic.twitter.com/0fuumH0ZcM
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 10, 2026
Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr. was named to the All-Big Ten first team and Jaxon Kohler made the list of honorable mentions. I think that Coen Carr and Carson Cooper were also both deserving of some All-Big Ten recognition, at least honorable mention status, but Kohler was the only one to earn that apparently.
I also wish that we would have seen the Big Ten Player of the Year finalists and how close the “voting” or decision was. Fears was in the running, but that season finale seemed to have sealed it for Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg.
Fears is definitely deserving of first-team status, but I was a little shocked to see Braden Smith over Nick Boyd on the first team, especially with how the regular season ended for both.
No Spartans made the all-freshman team nor the all-defensive team, which surprises me on the latter. I would have expected either Cooper or Fears to make the all-defensive team, but apparently they aren’t top-five defenders in the league. I disagree with Fears being snubbed.
These awards show that Fears is setting up for a monster junior season.
Jeremy Fears may become MSU’s first Big Ten POY since Cassius
While it’s not happening this year, being one of the best players in the entire conference as a sophomore just means that junior year Fears should become Michigan State’s first Big Ten Player of the Year winner since Cassius Winston did it during his junior season.
Fears is already on pace to break the single-season assists record in the Big Ten if he can win a game or two in the conference tourney and make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
If he can continue to improve his jumper and cut out the unnecessary foul baiting that inevitably gets him into hot water, I think he’s going to be a first-team All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year next season. His jumper has already improved tenfold, but adding a consistent 3-point shot would be massive.
There’s a reason Tom Izzo speaks so highly of Fears — he believes he can become a Spartan legend.