Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo said he is unsure how to punish Jeremy Fears Jr. for kicking a Minnesota player, but he defended his star.
EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo does not know yet what he will do with Jeremy Fears Jr.
But that did not prevent Izzo from defending his Michigan State basketball point guard and captain.
After kicking Minnesota’s Langston Reynolds in the groin and receiving a technical foul in a 76-73 loss at Minnesota on Wednesday, Fears received further increased scrutiny over a number of other plays throughout that game. That came on the heels of Michigan coach Dusty May saying Monday that the third-year sophomore created “dangerous” moments during the Spartans’ loss to the Wolverines last Friday.
Izzo on Wednesday said he might not start Fears. Two days later, he remained uncertain whether he will or not when No. 10 MSU hosts No. 6 Illinois on Saturday (8 p.m./Fox).
“I’ve looked at everything with Jeremy, and I can’t say like you normally do,” Izzo said Friday, Feb. 6. “I talked about not starting him and bringing him in, suspending him for a half. And then I looked at the whole situation, and I’m still not sure what I’m gonna do. And that’s the honest-to-God truth. And the only reason I’m not is because I gotta make sure that what is reported is always different than what actually happened.
“This whole thing started with the game before (against U-M), which I think some of that was blown out of proportion. I did not like the backward kick (at Minnesota), OK? He was pushed, (then) he did that. Sometimes, those are reactionary. … My decision, you can create your own philosophy on whether it’s right, wrong or indifferent. But I promise you, this is not nearly what it was made out to be in the first place. And that calculates other things that go on after it. Does he have to learn how to compete without competing that aggressively? Yeah. I’ve done some research with other people that have gone through things like that, and I think I have a pretty good handle on how I feel about it.”
Izzo said he talked after the game with Minnesota coach Niko Medved, who in his postgame press conference called Fears “a great kid” and “a competitor” who “gets a little carried away.” Izzo said Medved “didn’t say a word to me” about Fears’ play, and the Hall of Fame coach after the game remained critical of U-M’s May going public with his complaints.
“I’ll coach my team. Other people can coach their team,” Izzo said. “I don’t say anything about anybody else’s team that I don’t know about the individual. If people want to say something about mine? That’s all good. But it ain’t gonna change my opinion of my guy.
“Jeremy Fears has gone through a lot since he’s been here, more than most people go through in a college lifetime. I’ve been critical of him a lot. I’ve watched him grow. I like the trajectory he’s growing at. If there’s a couple of rough edges, I’m gonna curb them just like I have many before him.”
Izzo said he had a “come-to-Jesus meeting” with Fears on Thursday about the kick and other situations after returning from Minneapolis.
“I think he understands what’s going on,” Izzo said. “When you look at a kid and you make decisions – on your own kids or somebody else – you have to look at the whole picture. And the whole picture for me is he’s a 3.1 (GPA) student. … He’s done absolutely zero off the court. I’ve never had a problem with him. I’ve never had a problem with him in the classroom, never had a problem with him with drugs and alcohol, all the normal problems that you have.
“Does he get overhyped, does he get a little bit in that way? Probably. But do I think it was said – words were used of ‘trying to hurt somebody’ and that – if I thought that, and most of you know me pretty well, he wouldn’t even be here.”
Izzo continued: “I’m not trying to minimize it. I’m just trying to do what I think is right and fair from what I know of the kid. Listen, does he have to grow up? 100%. Did he have to grow up last year? 100%. For other reasons. But if I look at what he’s done, how far he’s come and what he’s been through, there’s a lot worse that I’ve been through than that.”
Izzo pointed to a situation in February 1998, when Mateen Cleaves and Andre Hutson were arrested and charged with underage drinking after the Spartans beat Michigan. Though he admitted much has changed in the past 28 years since that incident, and that the situation with Fears was markedly different, Izzo said he would not bow to outside pressure for punishment.
“I’m not going where one thing gets public, and then I’m gonna change the impression of my guy?” Izzo said. “I mean, Mateen Cleaves made a mistake after the Michigan game. Read my lips: I’d die for him. Hear my voice, I’d die for him. OK?
“So this thing about (Fears) trying to injure somebody? That’s insulting. That’s insulting. Being a little bit too letting your emotions get to you? That’s factual. I’m gonna deal with the facts, and I’m gonna handle it accordingly, and I already have. If you don’t think this has already been handled, it has been handled. But if you think I’m gonna give in to let you think that I’ve got some loose cannon here – and the guy does 95% of everything right, not only his play but his off-the-court, his in-the-classroom. His body of work deserves something. And I’m the only one who knows that. And I’m ready to be taken to task like I was last week, like I may be today or like I may be tomorrow.”
Fears has been playing at an elite and potentially All-American level and this season. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound third-year sophomore leads MSU at 14.7 points and ranks second in the nation at 9.3 assists. His 30.8 minutes a game also are a team high. But the comments from May and others since about Fears clearly have bothered Izzo.
“He's played some of his best basketball in a lot of ways. … Sometimes what you see on TV, it depends on how you look at it," Izzo said. "I don’t condone anything a player does to put another player in jeopardy of being hurt. There’s gonna be things that go on in a game, on both sides, that happen. And competitors are gonna compete. And now, there’s somebody checking him right now as he walked to school, as he wrote on a piece of paper, as he went to the bathroom, as he did everything. And maybe he deserved that.
“But I think we got that under control the best we can. Everybody knows what’s going on.”
Izzo also made it clear that the season-ending injury to backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu has no bearing on any potential punishment or in-game handling of Fears in Saturday’s game.
“I will make the best decision for that kid first and for me and my program second,” Izzo said. “And I say that because I think I know the kid well enough that he’s done a lot of great things and he’s playing pretty well. Nobody was playing better than Cleaves, and we had to do what we did then. ... Times have changed. But so has what happened changed a little bit.
“It's taken up too much of my time, to be honest with you. But I don’t brush that stuff under the rug. I search and define everything that happens in my program. But I can’t let people paint a picture that I don’t think is the same picture.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Is Jeremy Fears suspended for MSU vs Illinois?
Category: General Sports
