WATCH: Michigan State G Jeremy Fears Jr. Speaks After Loss to USC

Michigan State redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. led the Spartans in scoring on Saturday, but his team was ultimately outmatched by USC in Los Angeles.
Feb 1, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA;  Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) dribbles down court against the USC Trojans at the Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: William Navarro-Imagn Images
Feb 1, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) dribbles down court against the USC Trojans at the Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: William Navarro-Imagn Images / William Navarro-Imagn Images

No. 7 Michigan State men's basketball was upset by USC on Saturday in what was the Spartans' first loss in Big Ten play.

Redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. led the way for Michigan State with 12 points and six assists. While it was a solid performance for the young point guard, the team, as a whole, struggled and ultimately suffered its first defeat in over two months.

Fears addressed the media after the loss.

You can watch some of his media availability below:

Below is a transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's opening statement from his postgame press conference:

Izzo: "I had an assistant that said, ‘What starts bad, end bad.’ And the start was atrocious. Wanted to go inside right off the bat. Turned the ball over twice. We took a couple of bad shots, I think it was 9-3, and I think we only had one shot. And then, we got down 21-27, and give our guys credit, they bounced back, but USC played better than us. I thought the biggest things that happened in the game -- we got punched in the mouth. That doesn't happen to us very often, and I don't know if we responded very well. Then, before half we did a little better job. But when you don't take care of the boards like we did, even though we outrebounded by them by 1 -- that's kind a facade, they had a couple of times when they had three or four rebounds in a row and scored both times, one on the 3 and one on the 3-point play. And then, uncharacteristically, we shot poorly from the free-throw line, which we’re an 83% free-throw shooting team. And what did we end up shooting? 57% or something. Had a couple of those goofy turnovers, and that's usually the difference in the game. But give credit to USC, they played well. And I’ve been waiting to see how we would respond under some adversity, and today, we didn’t respond very well, so we’ll have to fix that quickly since we have another game coming up.”

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Aidan Champion
AIDAN CHAMPION