Tom Izzo was unhappy on Thursday night. That was made very clear.
The Hall of Fame head coach ripped into his team in the post-game press conference after a disappointing second-half performance against San Jose State, and told reporters that Michigan State is going to ‘get killed’ by Kentucky on Tuesday if the Spartans play like they did in the final 20 minutes.
Izzo was pretty harsh on his team after the 19-point win, but he did have some nice things to say about a couple of players — namely Jeremy Fears Jr.
Fears played well on Thursday, finishing with 15 points, nine assists, and five rebounds in the win, hitting three big threes throughout the game — two came in the final minutes to seal the game.
That performance was brought up after the game, and Izzo made an eye-opening statement about Fears that he’s hinted at before. Izzo said that Fears can become the next Mateen Cleaves at Michigan State — and if you know what Mateen means to Izzo, you’d know that’s a huge deal.
Tom Izzo: "I hope Jeremy Fears Jr. keeps growing. He can become the next Mateen. It is amazing how he has bounced back, with the injury he had. I think he has improved his shooting a lot. It is what I see in practice every day."
— Emmett Matasovsky (@E_Matasovsky57) November 14, 2025
While Michigan State didn’t play well overall, Fears had himself a nice game and came away with a solid stat line, but he continues to prove himself as an elite leader, and that’s what Izzo loves.
It’s clear that Izzo and Fears have a great relationship because the two have gone back-and-forth before, but the Hall of Fame head coach respects his point guard enough to let him call some plays of his own. He called a fantastic back door cut play against Arkansas to Jordan Scott that led to an easy bucket. That was very Mateen-like.
Let’s hope Fears has the same end result as Mateen at Michigan State.