Jeremy Fears Jr. is one of the 10 most valuable players in the nation, per analytics

This year’s Michigan State basketball team has a different feel to it, doesn’t it? The Spartans are playing some of their best basketball in years and that’s because Jeremy Fears Jr. is playing like Tom Izzo’s next Mateen Cleaves and Jaxon Kohler has the perfect leadership mindset.

This team just exudes confidence, and as long as it remains tough with the ability to rebound with the best of ‘em, Michigan State is going to be in the race for the Big Ten — and even a national title.

Michigan State is built for March.

Past national champions have all had one thing: an elite point guard. What does Michigan State have? An elite point guard.

Outside of his performance against Duke, Fears has been one of the best point guards in the country. Even against the Blue Devils when he shot 0-for-10 from the floor, he finished with 13 assists to just one turnover and players some suffocating defense.

Without Fears, this team isn’t nearly as good nor does it have as high of a ceiling.

Jeremy Fears Jr. dubbed one of the nation’s most valuable players

College basketball analytics expert Evan Miyakawa is about as good as they come in the industry. So when he dubs Fears one of the 10 most valuable players in the country, it holds some weight.

Earlier this week, Miyakawa shared a player value graph that shows Fears being one of the nation’s most valuable players. In fact, he’s the seventh-most valuable player in the country.

As you can see, Fears is in the “All-American caliber” section of the graph. That’s a perfect combination of defense and offense, and the fact that he’s the nation’s assists leader and also arguably the best defensive point guard in the nation puts him in this category.

Guys like Yaxel Lendeborg and Cameron Boozer are in the elite tier, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved up a tier before the end of the season.

If Fears can work on his shooting and finishing, he’s going to be the most dangerous point guard in America not named Braden Smith.