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<\/p>\nEAST LANSING, Mich. \u2014 Some sort of discipline for star guard Jeremy Fears is possible as Michigan State coach Tom Izzo deals with another issue in his backcourt: a season-ending foot injury for key transfer Divine Ugochukwu.<\/p>\n
Izzo said Friday he still was considering benching Fears for at least a portion of the No. 10 Spartans’ home game against fifth-ranked Illinois on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Fears’ tactics were questioned for a second consecutive game when he received a technical in a 76-73 upset loss to Minnesota on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Fears swung his leg backward into Langston Reynolds’ groin area after the whistle when Reynolds was called for a foul on a bucket by Fears. Officials didn’t see what Fears did, but issued the technical on review. Izzo said his sophomore guard needed to \u201cgrow up a little bit\u201d and the coach was considering whether to bench him.<\/p>\n
Izzo mostly defended Fears in his meeting with reporters two days later while saying he wasn’t sure what he was going to do about the on-court issue after a similar situation arose in the previous game against rival Michigan. Fears appeared to intentionally trip Wolverines star Yaxel Lendeborg during what was an intense matchup throughout No. 2 Michigan’s 83-71 victory last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do have some decisions to make,\u201d Izzo said. \u201cAnd I could make \u2019em playing him from the start, playing him 10 minutes into the game, playing him at halftime. I\u2019m not trying to minimize it. I\u2019m just trying to do what I think is right and fair from what I know of the kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I look at what he\u2019s done, how far he\u2019s come and what he\u2019s been through, there\u2019s a lot worse that I\u2019ve been through than that,\u201d Izzo said. \u201cMy decision, you can create your own philosophy on whether it\u2019s right, wrong or indifferent. I promise you this is not nearly what it was made out to be in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Minnesota, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Minneapolis. Credit: AP\/Matt Krohn<\/p>\n
Fears leads the Spartans at 14.6 points per game and shares the Big Ten lead in assists at 8.9 per game. Ugochukwu, who transferred from Miami, was a key part of the backcourt depth. Izzo said surgery was planned for Ugochukwu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel for him,\u201d Izzo said. \u201cThe saddest part is usually on those kinds of injuries you have like a stress reaction and you have pain in your foot. He had none of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michigan State is coming off consecutive losses for the first time this season and at risk of its first three-game losing streak in two years. Izzo says he doesn’t think Ugochukwu’s injury changes the outlook for the Spartans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have enough guards that I might have to play a little different,\u201d Izzo said. \u201cThat\u2019s not going to be the reason we win or lose games, if you ask me. We have to get our key guys playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Michigan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770416415_230_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Minnesota, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Minneapolis. Credit: AP\/Matt Krohn<\/p>\n
While Izzo is considering disciplining Fears, the coach seemed to say he wasn’t interesting in anything overly punitive. Izzo also defended his team’s sportsmanship after Michigan coach Dusty May accused the Spartans of making dangerous plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole thing started with the game before, which I think some of that was blown out of proportion,\u201d Izzo said, referring to the Michigan game. \u201cAnd so the next day I had a \u2018come to Jesus\u2019 meeting with him again. I think he understands what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at a kid, you make decisions on your own kids or somebody else, you have to look at the whole picture,\u201d Izzo said. \u201cAnd the whole picture to me is a 3.1 (grade point average) student. He\u2019s had no injuries. He\u2019s done absolutely zero off the court. I\u2019ve never had a problem with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST LANSING, Mich. \u2014 Some sort of discipline for star guard Jeremy Fears is possible as Michigan State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,319,217,231,772,1544,2148],"class_list":{"0":"post-587092","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","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116026018333014996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587092","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=587092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}