If you want to become an elite point guard and find yourself in the Big Ten history books for the rest of time, Michigan State is the place you want to be.
Jeremy Fears chose Michigan State because he’s seen what point guards who come through East Lansing have done. He considers himself a pure point guard, but he’s added much more of a scoring touch to his game that doesn’t get enough love, but he’s averaging 15.1 points per game this season.
Outside of his scoring, Fears is one of the best passers to come through East Lansing under Tom Izzo. He’s averaging 9.1 assists per game which is good for No. 1 in college basketball through Feb. 10.
Fears leads college basketball in assists, but he’s also well on pace to become the Big Ten’s single-season assists record holder — he’s already averaging the most assists per game in conference history.
That’s right, Fears is on pace to break Braden Smith’s previous assists records, but he’ll have to at least make it to the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament in order to claim that record. Smith is breathing down his neck currently at 8.9 assists per game, but Fears is leading the way after a second 15-plus assist game over the past few weeks.
If he continues this pace, he’s going to break Smith’s record which broke Cassius Winston’s which broke Mateen Cleaves’.
Michigan State is PGU
Looking at the Big Ten’s all-time assists leaders, it’s pretty clear that one school is known for producing elite passers, and that program is Michigan State.
The Spartans had the top two career assists leaders before Purdue’s Braden Smith broke that mark recently and is on pace to have over 1,000 before his eligibility is up, and they have three of the top five in terms of single-season assists in Big Ten history.
Not only do the Spartans have three of the top five single-season assist totals in Big Ten history, they have 10 of the top 25. That’s right, Michigan State owns 40 percent of the top 25 single-season asissts leaders in Big Ten history. That’s actually an insane stat.
In terms of career assists, Michigan State has eight of the top 30 — and nine of the top 32 — which is also nearly 33 percent of the best of the best.
Fears is just the latest — and potentially the best — in a long line of elite passers in Michigan State history, and he has a chance to top them all.