{"id":420353,"date":"2025-11-19T06:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/420353\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T06:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:38:10","slug":"jeremy-fears-jr-reaches-rare-doug-gottlieb-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/420353\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremy Fears Jr. reaches rare Doug Gottlieb mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Michigan State Spartans basketball team continues to ride early-season momentum behind the exceptional play of redshirt sophomore point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., whose latest performance cemented his name into NCAA history. The Spartans improved to 4-0<\/a> after Tuesday night\u2019s 83-66 win over the Kentucky Wildcats at Madison Square Garden, a statement victory that also placed the point guard among elite company.<\/p>\n

The sports analytics outlet OptaStats took to its official X (formerly known as Twitter) account to highlight just how rare<\/a> the sophomore guard\u2019s playmaking run has been through the Spartans\u2019 first four games of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeremy Fears Jr. of @MSU_Basketball is the first Division I player to lead his team to a 4-0 start while having 9+ assists in each game since Oklahoma State’s Doug Gottlieb in 1999-00.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comparison underscores how special Fears\u2019 start has been. Gottlieb, one of the NCAA\u2019s all-time leaders in assists, last accomplished the feat over two decades ago. Fears\u2019 early-season consistency and command of the offense have quickly made him one of the premier distributors in college basketball.<\/p>\n

For context, Gottlieb\u2019s accomplishments with the Oklahoma State Cowboys emphasize the weight of that comparison. He led the NCAA in assists per game in both 1998-99 and 1999-2000 and still ranks 10th all-time in Division I history. His 18-assist performance remains one of the most remarkable single-game displays in Big 12 history.<\/p>\n

The redshirt sophomore’s outing Tuesday vs. Kentucky in the Spartans\u2019 fourth game of the 2025 season featured 8 points, 13 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals \u2014 setting a new record for most assists in a single game at the Champions Classic.<\/p>\n

His outing Tuesday vs. Kentucky in the Spartans\u2019 fourth game of the 2025 season featured 8 points, 13 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals \u2014 setting a new record for most assists in a single game at the Champions Classic.<\/p>\n

The achievement reflects Fears\u2019 growth<\/a> and the core values of Tom Izzo\u2019s program \u2014 development, poise, and discipline. As Michigan State enters a key non-conference stretch where they will face the North Carolina Tar-heels and Duke Blue Devils, the 20-year-old guard gives the Spartans a steady, confident floor general.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Michigan State Spartans basketball team continues to ride early-season momentum behind the exceptional play of redshirt sophomore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,3490,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-420353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-michigan-state-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115574990725616638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}