MSU's Fears Goes the Extra Mile to be a Great Leader

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Aidan Champion | Last updated Jul 12, 2025 7:06 PM ET

Jeremy Fears Jr. is a natural-born leader.

Fittingly, he's Michigan State's point guard, a role that he's perfect for both as a vocal leader and as a floor general.

Last offseason, Spartans coach Tom Izzo had stressed leadership, a quality that, frankly, his team had lacked in prior years.

As with anything, leadership skills are something Fears works at developing. Along the way, he's learned different methods of being a good leader.

"One thing I would definitely say for me is knowing how to talk to certain players, certain people," Fears said. "Everybody has a different background, different culture and different way to get to player/teammates. So, for me, the best job I can (do) is try to get my message across to all 13, 14 players, but also knowing what tone or what voice, what works and yields to get somebody to play better and be better."

The Spartans have several newcomers on their roster, ones who all come from different places, different levels of competition and/or different programs. That can be challenging for a team when forming chemistry, but it's no different from what Michigan State has had to do in the past, including last season. And that happened to be the closest team this program has had in years.

Fears puts in the effort to learn about his new teammates -- not just who they are as players but also as people.

"Just really understanding, spending time together, talking to them," said the redshirt sophomore point guard. "Just having conversations, seeing where they're from and just getting background information in how they are and what may cause what they liked in coaches, what they didn't like what do they like in people, in friends.

"So, just kind of knowing that, and then, storing it in the back of my head, but then also know when I need my message to be brought to them, how to bring it to them and how to present it."

It's no accident Jeremy Fears Jr. is a leader. He does the things he's not necessarily required to do, and because of that, he thrives at being the type of man Izzo is always hoping to develop.

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