Why MSU is Asking Too Much of Jeremy Fears
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Jeremy Fears Jr. might be the most valuable player to his team in college basketball right now. That's not a good thing.
Michigan State's hopes each and every game are starting to have a more direct correlation with how Fears does each given night. It's a problem that MSU has to address urgently. That is, if it even can this late in the season.
Fears' Night at Wisconsin
As the box score shows, Fears actually had a relatively decent night during the 10th-ranked Spartans 92-71 drubbing at Wisconsin on Friday night: he scored 14 points and had 12 assists to just one turnover.
What is factually true is that no player in college hoops is more responsible for getting his teammates buckets than Fears is. According to KenPom, Fears has an assist rate of 54.2%, which quantifies the percentage of his teammates' baskets are off assists from him while he is on the court. Not a single other person in the sport is above 50%, and the closest player on a power conference team is Florida State's Robert McCray V --- he's all the way down at 45.1%.
Pros and cons of that number
While it's impressive Fears has gotten that number so high, it's also a sign that no one else on the team is distributing the ball well, or that nobody can create their own shot. It showed itself on Friday night.
Michigan State made 24 field goals during Friday night's loss. Fears either scored or assisted on 15 of those baskets. There was only one non-Fears assist all night, and that came with only 1:30 to go in the second half and the game already being decided. Ultimately, only scoring nine field goals in a 40-minute basketball game with just one player's removal from the equation is, well, bad.
For MSU to pull out a win the way it has been playing lately, it is requiring Fears to take a Superman-like role. It took 26 points and 15 assists for the Spartans to eek out a win in overtime against then-No. 5 Illinois last Saturday. That game still stands as a great win, but that performance from Fears is hardly replicable.
Other people need to step up. Coen Carr did his best on Friday, scoring 19 points, the most in his career against a Big Ten opponent, but not much other help came. Kur Teng scored 12 and Jordan Scott had 11, but they attempted 11 and 13 shots each, respectivley. Michigan State's two senior big men, Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper, only combined for 11 points.
Unless Fears lives up to that near-impossible Superman role, that's how a blowout at the Kohl Center happens. Simply put, he's not getting enough help out there on the offensive end right now.
This is a big reason why MSU doesn't deserve to be considered to be a very trustworthy team with March nearing. Fears currently needs to do so much every single game. It's tough to imagine the Spartans' current way of doing things holds up for four consecutive games in March Madness, let alone six.
The really tough part is, well, what's the alternative? Backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu is out for the year now, and Denham Wojcik has seldom shown that he can remain on the court for more than three minutes or so at one time.
It's basic and simple, but guys literally just have to play better. Kohler needs to be better. Cooper needs to be better. Teng needs to be better. And so on. Shots need to start falling from somewhere else, or a once-promising season for Michigan State might slip away unceremoniously.
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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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