Jeremy Fears Jr. will play during Michigan State basketball's Spain trip

EAST LANSING — It’s August, and Tom Izzo is already preparing Michigan State basketball for an important mission.

A 10-day trip to Spain that’s less than a week away, with three and possibly four games overseas. Integrating two transfers, Frankie Fidler and Szymon Zapala, into the lineup. Sliding Jaden Akins into the shooting guard spot and preparing Xavier Booker and others for much bigger roles.

And, perhaps most critically for the upcoming season, getting Jeremy Fears Jr. back on the court.

Izzo said Tuesday his second-year point guard is about “99%” recovered from a December 2023 gun shooting that cost Fears all but 12 games of his freshman season. Izzo, the Hall of Fame coach gearing up for his 30th season leading the Spartans, said he has been pleased with Fears’ summer progression.

“I want to see him run a team, which I know he can do,” Izzo said. “I want to see his defense. I mean, it was hard because he was off a long time. But the one thing about Jeremy is he's already a student of the game, and he did study the game.”

THE MISSION:Summer school for MSU basketball: Develop cohesion, prepare for Spain

In late June, the NCAA granted Fears a medical waiver that allowed him to receive a redshirt for the 2023-24 season. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound native of Joliet, Illinois, was shot in his upper left leg during the early morning hours of Dec. 23 in his hometown, ending his first season. The 19-year-old averaged 3.5 points, 3.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds with 10 steals over 15.3 minutes in MSU’s first 12 games.

“It's really not hard to play with him, for real,” Akins, a senior, said Tuesday. “He just makes it easy for you. He sees where everybody is on the court, so it's really not hard to play with him. ... He’s back. He's definitely competitive.”

Since recruiting Fears, Izzo has likened his young point guard’s leadership and abilities to elevate those around him to Mateen Cleaves, who helped the Spartans win the 2000 national championship. And barring any unforeseen setbacks, Fears appears prepared to take over the starting point guard spot from A.J. Hoggard, who transferred to Vanderbilt for a fifth season. MSU also lost two other leaders to graduation in guard Tyson Walker and forward Malik Hall, elevating Fears into one of the vocal leaders for the upcoming season.

“Life throws challenges at you, and you gotta overcome them,” Fears said in March during the Spartans’ NCAA tournament run in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Everybody has roadblocks. This is just something that I'm gonna get over, and it's gonna make me a better person and a better player in the long run. …

“I just know next year that I gotta return the same, because some of those guys are leaving.”

That process began in late April and early May. Fears began working 5-on-5 with his teammates, after spending the winter rehabbing and doing some non-contact drill work by the end of the season.

“I feel like he's really close to 100%,” Akins said. “He's just got to keep working on getting his conditioning back to 100%. But really, besides that, I feel like he's been pretty much playing the same, running a team and making the right plays, getting guys shots and then getting downhill. He's been looking good to me. …

“It's not surprising, really. I mean, I know just the type of person he is. He attacked his rehab hard, and it's paying off right now.”

Izzo had MSU practicing every other day in preparation for the Aug. 13-22 visit to Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, but he ramped that up to every day starting Monday, with the trip a week away. It will be the first chance to get on the court with the veteran transfer additions: Fidler is a 6-7 wing from Nebraska-Omaha, and Zapala is a 7-footer who played previously at Utah State and Longwood.

“We got Fears back — he wasn't really with us last year, so it's getting used to playing with him again. And we got a lot of new guys, we got a lot of new big guys,” Booker, a sophomore, said. “So it's learning how to play off of each other and learning how to play with each other. And that's been the main focus the whole summer.”

It is the Spartans’ first overseas trip since playing four games in Italy before the 2015-16 season. MSU also did a summer tour of Australia in 1991 under previous coach Jud Heathcote when Izzo was his top assistant.

“I'm hoping to get a lot out of it,” said Izzo, who added he might add a fourth game in Spain along with the three already scheduled against international opponents.

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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