MSU's Fears Needs Return to Old Form as 'Dirty' Label Sticks
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Jeremy Fears Jr. is the face of the Michigan State basketball roster. If you asked an average Big Ten fan to name as many players on MSU right now as possible, Fears would be the most common name to go first.
This has now become a problem for the Spartans. Across Michigan State's last two games --- against rival Michigan and Minnesota --- Fears has made some plays that aren't worth the time defending. He definitely seemed to intentionally trip UM's Yaxel Lendeborg last Friday, and on Wednesday, Fears backwards-kicked a Golden Gophers player in the midsection.
Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. was given a technical foul on this play. pic.twitter.com/q03PMlmOzl
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 5, 2026
The popular consensus outside East Lansing already wasn't very pro-Fears. Even with these recent developments, let's face it: Fears is not a very fun player to watch when he's not on the team you root for. Yes, he does foul bait. Yes, he does sell calls and flop. Yes, he's great at getting underneath opponents' skins.
All of that is at least basketball, though. While "foul baiting" is looked down upon by basketball fans, it's still a legitimate skill to fool a defender into fouling you. Pretty much every basketball player flops a little bit to sell calls; Fears just exaggerates more. Trash-talking has been a part of basketball for decades.
Impact of Latest Developments
Other fans don't have to like another team's star player. Once non-basketball things get involved, though, it changes. The label of "dangerous" was just thrown out there by Michigan head coach Dusty May on Monday. It's hard to imagine May not thinking "I told you so" after what Fears did against Minnesota.
Fears has to find a way to put himself back on the "nuisance" side, rather than the "dirty" side. Before that Michigan game, the attitude was, justifiably, "Oh, that's Fears for ya," whenever Fears would, say, stop suddenly in transition and allow Michigan big man Aday Mara run right into him for a foul call. Yeah, it's cheap and certainly annoying if you're a non-MSU fan watching, but, hey, it is technically a foul on Mara.
Then the video of Fears tripping Lendeborg came out, and then May heavily implied that Fears is a dirty player. Again, people already didn't seem to like Fears that much, but this gave a lot of people a truly legitimate gripe.
"When somebody comes out and publicly says something about a guy, that sometimes happens, but that's Jeremy's fault," Tom Izzo said after the game Wednesday.
After May's comments, everyone watching Wednesday night was going to be looking at what Fears would be doing in this game, and then he did another non-basketball play that wasn't even remotely subtle. Guess what, too! MSU's next game is against fifth-ranked Illinois on national television on a Saturday night.
If the scrutiny about the style of Fears' play wasn't high already, it's sky-high now. If Fears moves his leg upwards one millimeter around an Illinois player on Saturday, expect it to be blasted out to the internet and on Twitter. Izzo is right, though. Fears brought that level of scrutiny upon himself with his actions against UM and against Minnesota.
Fears is also going to be officiated differently, too. Referees aren't monks. They know the kind of reputations that players earn for themselves. An official is going to know that Fears will sell calls a lot, but usually those "flops" have been ways to ensure an actual foul gets called, technically. With the new, negative persona about Fears' play, one can only wonder if Fears is less likely to get those calls now.
Simply put, Fears needs to get back to playing basketball his way. It was working great up until Friday night against Michigan. Time heals all wounds. If Fears plays his way, the perception of "dirty player" will eventually shift back towards somebody who is extremely annoying to play against and watch, but is still highly effective.
Things just got bad enough with that kick against Minnesota that Izzo benched Fears for a while and put in Denham Wojcik, even though the game wasn't entirely out of reach. MSU even flirted with a comeback at the end. Regardless, something besides telling Fears "don't do that" needs to happen.
"I don't even know if I'm going to start him in the next game," Izzo said. "But I stuck up for him, too, because what happened in the last game [against Michigan]... I'll just say what happened in the last game, the way that was handled was poorly, too. So that starts everything. But Jeremy's got to grow up a little bit."
We'll see if Fears really does start Saturday's game on the bench or not. Regardless of his play style, though, Fears is this team's alpha on the court. Michigan State cannot afford to lose him for something this silly and preventable.
"You know what?" Izzo said after the game. "If he plays that way, he deserves [to be called dirty]. OK? And he ain't going to play that way if I bench him the next game."
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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