{"id":707730,"date":"2026-04-10T23:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707730\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:00:31","slug":"msu-star-guard-jeremy-fears-jr-declares-for-nba-draft-while-retaining-college-eligibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707730\/","title":{"rendered":"MSU star guard Jeremy Fears Jr. declares for NBA Draft while retaining college eligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 10, 2026, 6:35 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>Michigan State basketball player Jeremy Fears Jr. has declared for the NBA Draft.Fears will maintain his college eligibility, leaving open the possibility of returning to the Spartans.He averaged 15.2 points and 9.4 assists per game during the 2025-26 season.ESPN currently ranks Fears as the No. 73 prospect, which is outside the typical draft range.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A Michigan State basketball star has officially declared for the NBA Draft, but has left the door open for a return for another season with the Spartans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Jeremy Fears Jr. officially <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StephenM_Brooks\/status\/2042667716935319622\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced<\/a> on Friday that he will enter his name in the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility for a possible return. Fears will essentially be testing the draft waters to see what his evaluation comes back with and from there decide if he&#8217;s better suited to turn pro or return to Michigan State.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Here&#8217;s the official message from Fears on his intentions related to the NBA Draft:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Fears had a breakout season in 2025-26, finishing the season averaging 15.2 points and 9.4 assists per game. He was the most important player on the Spartans&#8217; roster and helped lead Michigan State to a second straight Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">On Thursday, Fears was listed as the No. 73 overall prospect in <a href=\"http:\/\/spartanswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/spartans\/mens-basketball\/2026\/04\/09\/michigan-state-basketball-jeremy-fears-nba-projection\/89542121007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN&#8217;s NBA Draft big board<\/a> &#8212; which would essentially be just outside of the draft field. So unless he were to get some better grades from teams, it would make the most sense for him to return for another season at Michigan State.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">If Fears returns, he&#8217;ll spearhead a Spartans team that will enter next season with national championship aspirations. The Spartans have been considered a preseason top 10 team for next year, with some even listing Michigan State as their preseason No. 1 team for next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Contact\/Follow us @<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thespartanswire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The SpartansWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SpartansWire\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobertBondy5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">RobertBondy5<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 10, 2026, 6:35 p.m. ET Michigan State basketball player Jeremy Fears Jr. has declared for the NBA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[72400,7,6,81437,73480,72404,72860,72696,74315,72444,72422,72570,73830,72405,72406,72558,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-707730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sstssportscollegespartansmens-basketball","12":"tag-sstsnmens-basketball","13":"tag-tagbasketball","14":"tag-tagespn-inc","15":"tag-tagfacebook","16":"tag-tagmichigan-state-university","17":"tag-tagnational-sports","18":"tag-tagnba","19":"tag-tagnba-draft","20":"tag-tagncaa-mens-basketball-tournament","21":"tag-tagoverall-positive","22":"tag-tagsports-news","23":"tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116382901414387430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707730","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=707730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}