Less than 72 hours. That’s how long Tom Izzo has to wait to find out what his 2026-27 Michigan State basketball roster will look like. Jeremy Fears Jr. is facing the biggest decision of his basketball career — bigger than his decision to commit to Michigan State.
Stay for another year and pursue a national title, Big Ten player of the year, and several other major accolades or enter the NBA draft as a projected mid-to-late second-rounder, at best.
The decision seems fairly simple, but it’s not to an ultra competitive All-American point guard who’s dream is playing in the NBA and who’s younger brother is already in the league. Seeing his baby brother in the NBA while he’s about to enter his junior year in college might drive a competitive freak into making a rash decision, but he’s not going to leave just based on the hope of getting drafted.
Fears has met with a couple of NBA teams — at least publicly — and he excelled at the NBA Combine. No doubt he improved his stock, but he isn’t a first-round pick anywhere.
Unless he’s been told behind the scenes that he’s promised an early pick or guaranteed contract.
So what’s the confidence level for a return? Well, it’s fluctuated quite a bit.
What I believe the Jeremy Fears Jr. decision will be
If I’m going based on a scale from 1-10 where one means I have zero confidence that he’ll be back in East Lansing next season and 10 means it’s a lock, I would say I’m somewhere in the 9-9.5 range.
That’s obviously something that could backfire right in my face if he does decide to remain in the draft, but a smart guy like Fears knows what the right choice is. His heart might be telling him to chase his NBA dreams immediately but his head has to say that it’ll still be there next year when he’s actually a first-round prospect.
So the reason it’s not a 10 is because he’s so competitive that I think he wants to be better than his brother immediately. He doesn’t realize that he still can be if he returns to Michigan State because he’ll be able to improve his stock, get drafted earlier, and have a longer NBA career.
Plus, why would he want to take a pay cut to be a second-round pick and be bounced back-and-forth between the end of an NBA bench and the G-League? It wouldn’t make much sense.
I’m still going with a 9.25 confidence level out of 10, but I’ll still be prepared for heartbreak.
Add us as a preferred source on Google