Michigan State basketball: Jeremy Fears Jr. won't return this season

It's been a tough freshman year for Jeremy Fears Jr. Although he showed plenty of flashes with Michigan State basketball early on, he was injured in a shooting back in his hometown over Christmas break.

Since then, Fears has been rehabbing that leg in which the gunshot occurred and he looks like he's progressing quickly. Tom Izzo has even praised the speed in which he's been healing and there have been videos of him taking shots during pregame warmups, but he's still walking slowly and getting that comfortability back.

Izzo had been fairly optimistic about his freshman point guard's potential return late in the season, saying that he could be back by the postseason, but he never gave a sure answer.

That changed on Monday as he spoke to the media, stating for the first time publicly that Fears would not be back this season and the team would be looking to apply for a redshirt.

This doesn't come as a major surprise, it's just interesting that it took this long for Izzo to shoot down the idea of him returning to the court. Obviously Fears has been working to rehab that leg and it's been a long, rough road for him, but it just won't be enough to get up to full speed a month from now when every game means that much more.

But getting a medical redshirt out of this could be huge. While it's not a given, Izzo will try to make the case that his season was cut short for reasons out of his control.

Potentially five years of Jeremy Fears would be massive for the program as he could end up being one of the best leaders Michigan State basketball has ever seen.