For the first time since the 2023 class, Michigan State basketball has a McDonald’s All-American signee.
Jasiah Jervis, a borderline five-star shooting guard from New York, signed with Michigan State back in mid-November, and now he’s the Spartans’ first McDonald’s All-American since Jeremy Fears and Xavier Booker earned those impressive honors back in the 2023 class.
As we’ve seen, one of those two have panned out in East Lansing as a potential college basketball All-American this season while the other is still trying to find himself at UCLA.
Fears is playing the best basketball of his career as a back-to-back Big Ten Player of the Week honoree, and Booker is doing OK at UCLA, but he’s still struggling with some of the same things he battled while at Michigan State.
Historically, being a McDonald’s All-American usually means you’re going to have a solid career in East Lansing as three straight have made it to the NBA and are still there. Max Christie was the last before Fears and Booker, and he’s currently playing starters minutes in the NBA. Jaren Jackson Jr. was before him, and he’s one of the best young bigs in the league. And Miles Bridges was right before Jaren, and he, too, is one of the best the league has to offer.
Tom Izzo has a pretty good track record with McDonald’s All-Americans.
We’ll see if Jervis is next.
Jasiah Jervis will be stepping into a big role
Throughout the 2025-26 season thus far, the biggest weakness on the Michigan State roster is the shooting guard spot. The Spartans need someone to step up and become the go-to guy at the two-guard, and Izzo is finding it difficult to choose between Divine Ugochukwu, Kur Teng, and Trey Fort — he might just settle on Jordan Scott and make everyone happy.
That means that Jervis could be a starter the second he gets to campus. He’s already shown that he’s one of the best shooting guards in the country, so all he has to do is play solid defense and the minutes will likely be his. I do expect Teng, Ugochukwu, and Scott to all improve next season, but I think the latter will slide back to the small forward spot.
Jervis has a chance to lead the group as the starter and allow Ugochukwu to play backup point guard again and Teng can be his backup as a sharpshooter off the bench.
As long as Jervis has some defensive intensity to his game, I think we’re going to see him play big minutes as a freshman — maybe the most since Max Christie in 2021.