East Lansing — The single most important question of Michigan State’s offseason has been answered: Jeremy Fears Jr. is coming back for his junior season.
Fears, 21, withdrew from the NBA Draft process before Wednesday night’s NCAA deadline. The Spartans’ record-setting point guard is coming back for another run as the Spartans eye a trip to the Final Four at Ford Field.
A strong NBA Combine and workouts with two NBA teams made it a tense two weeks as Fears pondered a pro future, though his coach Tom Izzo maintained throughout the process he expected Fears back at Breslin Center. Just Wednesday morning, at the Mackinac Policy Conference, Izzo hinted at that fact when asked about his team.
“We’ve got most of our guards back,” Izzo said. “I think we’ll have all of them back.”
In the end, there were no surprises — a reprieve during a chaotic day for Michigan State as an institution, which is now looking for a university president after Kevin Guskiewicz left for Clemson. Fears will be back for his fourth year in East Lansing, and his third full season as the Spartans starting point guard.
Fears should be among NCAA’s top players in 2026-27
Fears comes back to Michigan State as one of the top-rated players in the country, at the very least at his position. In 2025-26, Fears led Michigan State with 15.2 points per game and led the nation with 9.4 assists per game.
On a consistent basis, Fears’ crafty playmaking and cerebral understanding of his teammates’ tendencies made him an All-American honoree and one of the country’s top point guards as one of five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award (he is the only one who has withdrawn from the NBA Draft so far).
Analytics site KenPom ranked Fears the seventh-most impactful player in Division I according to its kPOY metric, which crowns the site’s most valuable player. The six players ahead of him — Duke’s Cam Boozer, Iowa State’s Joshua Jefferson, Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg, Houston’s Kingston Flemings, Illinois’ Keaton Wagler and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa — all remain in the NBA Draft process.
Even as Fears showed clear limitations as a 3-point shooter (35-of-109) or when on-court antics — groin kicks to opponents at Minnesota and Michigan earned national headlines — distracted from his excellence, Fears still turned himself into a flat-out differencemaker for the Spartans this season. Building on his shot and defense will be clear keys going forward. His coach would probably add discipline in there, too.
“On the defensive end, I wanted to take that up a notch, and then also shooting,” Fears told Big Ten Network. “I think I made a 3 a game this year which was huge coming from the previous year. So next year whether it’s NBA or (college) just be more consistent.”
There were many nights last season that Fears’ play willed the Spartans forward. He assisted on 53.1% of Michigan State’s baskets for the entire season. That’s the most of anyone since at least the 2009-10 season, and it doesn’t take into account Fears took 157 shots (17.8% of MSU’s volume) himself.
All that, in just his second season as a starter. But it also comes in the context of personal tragedy. After being shot in the leg during a Christmas break return to his hometown of Joliet, Illinois, in 2023, Fears missed the remainder of his true freshman season and was granted a medical redshirt by the NCAA. Fears came back after a grueling summer of rehab and started all but one game for the Spartans in 2024-25, playing a major role in a 30-7 season that yielded a Big Ten championship and Elite Eight run.
Last season, though, felt like the version of Fears he was supposed to become in the long run. His systematic destruction of opponents’ defenses. Perfect lobs and pinpoint passes. When he called his own number, weaving through transition and finishing floaters and lay-ups with ease, he provided Michigan State’s heartbeat. His guiding hand culminated in a 27-8 Sweet 16 run last season that also caught the eyes of pro scouts. It was all but necessary that he explore those options, though his decision to return creates plenty of intrigue for his third collegiate act.
Legacy on the line for Fears, Izzo
Fears’ remarkable sophomore season reset the record books for Michigan State. Fears passed Cassius Winston for the single-season MSU assists record with 328, and he broke Magic Johnson’s assists record in an NCAA Tournament game for Michigan State with 16 against Louisville in the second round. Fears came within three helpers of Mateen Cleaves’ 20-assist record against Michigan when he dished 17 against Maryland on Jan. 24.
Legendary company, with more records in reach. Fears’ 564 career assists are just 326 away from Winston’s record of 890, which also served as the Big Ten record before Purdue’s Braden Smith broke it and the NCAA marker this past season.
Fears himself is cognizant of a greater history. When his own records are brought up, he defers credit to his predecessors who won in March.
“They’ve been in Final Fours, championships, everything that you can imagine,” Fears told The Detroit News after he broke Johnson’s assists record against Louisville in the second round. “So I’m still working. I’m still trying to get better and help the team. … At the end of the day, I’m just happy to keep playing.”
With his decision to stick around, Fears can add to his own legacy.
It also gives Izzo a chance to add to his. With Fears at the helm, Izzo keeps breaking coaching records, too. He set the Big Ten’s career wins record in Fears’ first season as a starter in 2024-25, though first-round pick Jase Richardson had a lot to do with that, too. Izzo’s 764 career wins currently rank 20th in NCAA Division I history, and seventh most among active coaches.
The ones that mean the most to Izzo, though, will be those that could get him back to the Final Four, where Michigan State hasn’t been since Cassius Winston led the way in 2019.
With Fears leading the way, and a crop of talent on this next squad including big man transfer Anton Bonke, transition nightmare Coen Carr and a top-five recruiting class including shooting guard Jasiah Jervis, this next squad could have the talent to get there.
Anton Bonke withdraws from NBA Draft process
If Fears was the Spartan that fans had their eyes on for NBA Draft decision day, then the decision of its newest member, Anton Bonke, shouldn’t be overlooked either. Though he transferred in from Charlotte earlier this offseason, Bonke too explored the NBA Draft process and withdrew Wednesday, The Detroit News confirmed with agent Scott Nichols of Rize Management.
Bonke, 7-foot-2 and 270 pounds, broke out last season at Charlotte averaging 10.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game while shooting 13-for-38 on 3-pointers. His withdrawal had less intrigue than Fears’, but it does ensure Michigan State’s frontcourt will have its prize of the offseason.
What Bonke brings to this frontcourt is experience, in addition to readily available talent. Whereas rising redshirt sophomore Jesse McCulloch had a rough adjustment in his first full season on the court, and incoming freshman Ethan Taylor (a five-star named to USA Basketball’s U18 team alongside Jervis) may take some time to develop into a consistent difference-maker, Bonke has two collegiate seasons under his belt and has a frame that can withstand the battles of the Big Ten. That’s an area that will be important for MSU, which lost Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper to graduation.
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Jeremy Fears Jr. to return to Michigan State, withdraw from NBA Draft