Michigan State basketball beat Rutgers on Thursday, March 5, with 21 points from Jeremy Fears Jr, but it also came with a lesson on the NCAA rulebook.
Michigan State basketball guard Jeremy Fears Jr. had a pretty good night in the Spartans' 91-87 win over Rutgers on Thursday, March 5.
Fears tied for a team high with 21 points and delivered eight assists – leaving him 20 short of passing Mateen Cleaves for MSU's single-season record – in a win that locked up a triple-bye in next week's Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.
It wasn't all flowers and tourney plans, however, as one sequence Thursday delivered a lesson to Tom Izzo, Fears' Hall of Fame coach in his 31st season.
It began with Fears getting whistled twice with 10:56 to play – called for what appeared to be an inadvertent trip of Rutgers guard Lino Mark, then picking up a technical foul (which was his fourth foul overall) for jumping and pointing to the video scoreboard during a replay.
Izzo argued with referees, but to no avail.
After being called for the reach in, Jeremy Fears Jr. is issued a technical foul for pointing up at the video board of the replay. pic.twitter.com/Zow2BaD20m
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) March 6, 2026
Izzo told the Breslin crowd afterward, as he opened his senior ceremony remarks, that Fears did not deserve the technical.
Later, however, the Hall of Fame coach in his 31st season admitted he erred, and that it was actually in the NCAA rulebook and adjudicated properly.
The rule, as it appears in Rule 10, Section 3, Article 1 of the NCAA's men's basketball rule book for 2025-26, assesses a technical foul for:
"A player or substitute committing an unsportsmanlike act including, but not limited to, the following ... "
It gets a bit wonky, here, since there's no actual wording referencing video boards or screens. But there are at least a couple subsets that arguably covered the situation with Fears. Among them:
"a. Disrespectfully addressing an official or gesturing in such a manner as to indicate resentment."
Or ... "c. Inciting undesirable crowd reaction."
There's also Article 2 of the same section which addresses "Bench personnel" – which wouldn't seem to apply to a player on the court, such as Fears, "committing an unsportsmanlike act including, but not limited to, the following:
"a. Disrespectfully addressing an official.
"b. Attempting to influence an official’s decision.
"e. Objecting to an official’s decision by rising from the bench or using gestures.
"f. Inciting undesirable crowd reactions."
Regardless of the specific line item that nicked Fears, Rutgers' Tariq Francis went to the line for a free throw that made it a 14-point game at the time.
Later, Izzo blamed himself for not knowing the rule, nor passing that along to Fears.
Likewise, Fears noted his lesson: “I was trying to signal to my bench that I didn’t really foul him. He was driving full speed, and he fell. He lost his balance and tripped,” Fears said. “But I didn’t know that you couldn’t [point to the replay board]. So that was new. But also at the same time, now I know, and don’t let it happen again.”
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jeremy Fears Jr. drew technical foul that even Tom Izzo didn't expect
Category: General Sports
