If you talked to any Michigan State basketball even somewhat online, they would tell you that their concern about Jeremy Fears Jr. leaving for the NBA is growing.
A few weeks ago, no one was even sweating the idea of Fears working out for NBA teams and going through the Combine process, but now after he excelled there and after a couple of interestingly-timed tweets by him and his dad, that’s no longer the case. We are all now sweating bullets as the All-American point guard decides to remain in the draft, leaving Michigan State with a true freshman starting point guard and no backups, or to return and chase another Big Ten title.
And also a national title. Can’t forget that one.
Some mock drafts recently had been hyping Fears up after his Combine showing where he did a little of everything despite being bitten by the turnover bug in his second scrimmage. I saw him going as high as the 30s and ESPN had him at No. 47 to the Hawks.
That coupled with the fact that Fears tweeted that he doesn’t like when people tell him what’s best for him was enough to send the fanbase into a full-blown panic.
However, a new mock draft by Yahoo!’s Kevin O’Connor should quell those concerns.
No Jeremy Fears in the latest Yahoo! mock
O’Connor is a well-connected NBA insider and he was able to gather some intel from this past week’s NBA Combine. That’s what makes this mock draft even more credible. This isn’t just some fan-created mock that I could draw up with minimal research in five minutes, this is an intel-based projection.
Fears went undrafted in this new Yahoo! mock.
Obviously that’s not an ideal scenario either. If he did decide to go pro, no real Spartan fan is going to root for him to go undrafted. We all want him to succeed and live out his dreams, but no one wants him to leave when he’s not quite ready. He has a jumper to improve and a legacy to build on.
A legacy pales in comparison to the NBA, but it does mean something to Fears and so will the pay cut that he’ll have to take as a second-round pick. Right now, he’s not mocked as a first-rounder anywhere. That should be a good indicator that it’d make the most sense to return.
At the end of the day, he has to make the decision he feels most comfortable with.
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