Jeremy Fears added to his impressive resume on Tuesday night with a 29-point, nine-assist performance in a come-from-behind win over Rutgers in Piscataway.
The sophomore point guard continued his hot stretch, and followed up a 17/17 game with a career-high in scoring. The Spartans needed every last point from Fears, too. They went to overtime against the 9-11 Scarlet Knights in one of the ugliest games we’ve seen from MSU in a while.
But when it mattered and Michigan State needed someone to step up and take over, Fears was the guy. He scored most of his points in the second half and overtime to help secure the win.
The way he’s been playing lately has me not only believing that he’s a first-team All-Big Ten player, but he’s also a legitimate Big Ten Player of the Year candidate.
I’m not the only one who believes this.
In fact, Big Ten Network’s Rapheal Davis talked about Fears not only being a top Big Ten Player of the Year candidate, but also the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. The last player to do that was Dee Brown at Illinois during the 2004-05 season. That wouldn’t be bad company to be in.
Fears has the numbers to be under consideration, at the very least, if not one of the frontrunners.
Jeremy Fears has been playing at an All-American level
Jeremy Fears began the season as one of the best point guards in the nation, and now he’s been playing at an even higher level. Over the past nine games, Fears has been on an absolute tear.
Before this recent outburst, he was solid offensively, but he wasn’t expected to score much more than around 10 points per game. He was improving offensively, but he didn’t have the respect of defenders. That’s changed in a hurry.
Over the past nine games, he’s averaging 18.6 points and 8.4 assists per game. He’s also playing elite defense, and he’s only shot under 50 percent three times in those nine games. Fears has been a legit All-American this past month, and he probably should be a Big Ten Player of the Year frontrunner.
Fears could become the Spartans’ first Big Ten Player of the Year since Cassius Winston in 2018-19, and MSU’s first Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year since Xavier Tillman in 2019-20 — and the first to win both in the same year in over 20 seasons.
Incredible talent. Incredible growth.