Tom Izzo shares chances of a medical redshirt for Jeremy Fears

Jeremy Fears has missed the last 14 games for Michigan State following a shooting that injured his leg back in December. Now, with give or take a month or so left in his freshman season, the Spartans are now considering his options as far as a medical redshirt.

Tom Izzo addressed the possibility of a redshirt for Fears during his press conference on Monday. He said that the program intends to start that process with him, even though they don’t know if he’ll use it down the line or whether or not the NCAA would allow it based on games played.

“Yeah. We’re going to try to do that,” said Izzo. “I don’t know if he’ll ever use it or need it. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.”

“He’s somewhere in that one game, which, I mean, right now? We give a guy – I think we’ve got 40 year olds playing in some football leagues,” Izzo added.

As far as his recovery, though, Izzo shared that Fears has made significant strides. It doesn’t mean that he’ll be back on the court this season whatsoever but does indicate that he should have plenty of time to prepare himself for next season based on where his rehab is now.

“Jeremy has had unbelievable progress,” said Izzo. “He’s shooting now, doing things that I never thought he’d do.”

“There are some guys that are quick healers, some guys that aren’t quick healers. He is a tremendously quick healer. He was walking and now he’s doing a lot of stuff. He’s jogging, I think, underwater,” Izzo continued. “Does that mean he’s going to play this year? No. But does that mean that he’s really getting better, will have a spring and summer to get well and improve his skills? Yes.”

Fears, a four-star freshman out of Joliet just outside Chicago, appeared in a dozen games for the Spartans before his incident. In 15.3 minutes a reserve, he averaged 3.5 points, 3.3 assists, and 1.9 rebounds while shooting 50% from the field.

Considering all things, Fears should be a prime candidate to earn a redshirt in order to have an extra season if he so chooses. Izzo reminded everyone that it’s not a sure thing, though, considering the current process that that request will have to go through.

“We should be able to petition and get something. It seems like everybody else can. His circumstances are more than deserving of that,” said Izzo. “I’m definitely not politicking right now. I’m just saying I think we’re in a time when there are no rules. But the only time the rules seem to come up is when the rules probably aren’t fair.”

“Here’s a case where a kid deserves to be looked at,” Izzo said. “We’ll do that but you have to turn it in, which I think we have. Then it goes through a lot of stuff.”