EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo knows the challenge ahead for Michigan State basketball just got a lot greater – beyond the growing negative attention being paid to Jeremy Fears Jr.
The 10th-ranked Spartans (19-4, 9-3 Big Ten) already will be a man down when they face No. 6 Illinois (20-3, 11-1) on Saturday, Feb. 7. Backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu will miss the rest of the season with a broken foot, Izzo announced Friday, which leaves MSU in a precarious position with eight games remaining in the regular season.
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And it remains uncertain if Izzo will sit Fears for any of that game or how he will handle the point guard situation the rest of the season.
“For us, we need to regroup, get back on the floor,” said Izzo, whose team has lost two straight. “We got a challenge ahead of us for sure on Saturday.”
Problem at point
Izzo on Wednesday said he might sit Fears after the point guard kicked Minnesota’s Langston Reynolds in the groin and receiving a technical foul in Wednesday’s 76-73 loss at Minnesota. Two days later, he remained uncertain whether he will or not.
One thing he was clear about: the situation with Ugochukwu’s season-ending injury won’t affect his decision on Fears one way or another.
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“On whether I sit (Fears) out for a while, it has nothing to do with it. I’m not that small,” Izzo said. “It would have nothing to do with Divine, nothing to do with anybody backing up.”
BAD NEWS: Divine Ugochukwu, MSU point guard, out for season, needs foot surgery
Fears has been playing at an elite and potentially All-American level and this season. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound third-year sophomore leads MSU at 14.7 points and ranks second in the nation at 9.3 assists. His 30.8 minutes a game also are a team high.
Izzo had been starting Ugochukwu at shooting guard in the 12 games prior to Wednesday, when he came off the bench for the first time since early December and immediately replaced Fears at point guard before sliding to the 2-guard role. The 6-3 transfer from Miami (Florida), averaged 5.1 points and shot 44.2% from 3-point range in 22 games with the Spartans this season, with a big game at Penn State and the tying 3-pointer to send the game to overtime at Rutgers.
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Ugochukwu’s injury leaves Izzo with Fears and senior Harvard transfer Denham Wojcik as his two experienced options at point guard.
“I have enough guards that I might have to play a little different,” Izzo said. “But that’s not gonna be the reason we win or lose games, if you ask me. We have to get our key guys playing well.”
The Spartans, meantime, now have as many Big Ten losses as they did a year ago, all three of which came in the first two weeks of February. MSU’s seven upcoming opponents – Illinois, Wisconsin, UCLA, Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana and U-M – enter Thursday a combined 59-23 in Big Ten play after wins Thursday by the Buckeyes and Wolverines.
Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans looks on against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the first half at Williams Arena on Feb. 4, 2026, in Minneapolis.
Necessary comebacks
On Wednesday, for the third straight game, MSU found itself in a big hole.
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For the second time in six days, the Spartans couldn’t overcome it despite fighting back with a furious flurry in the second half.
The Spartans trailed by as many as 11 in the first half and by 16 with 4:08 to play against Minnesota. They rallied thanks to Coen Carr’s takeover in the post and a late 3-point barrage from Jordan Scott and Trey Fort, pulling within two on Fort’s fourth of the game with 19.6 seconds left before falling, 76-73.
MSU trailed by as many as 18 in an 83-71 loss to No. 2 Michigan last Friday and fell behind 12 early before a frantic 88-79 overtime comeback win at Rutgers on Jan. 27.
The Illini are shooting 36.1% from 3-point range. Their 11.2 made per game ranks 10th and their 31.1 attempts ranks 13th in Division I.
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One of the big reasons the Spartans have found themselves needing to fight back is their opponents’ deep-shooting success.
Rutgers, Michigan and Minnesota combined to shoot 40.6% on 3-point attempts (28 of 69) in the past three games. But the Gophers making 10-for-21 from distance in Wednesday’s loss was more than anomaly.
It continued a trend of MSU’s defensive decline along the arc. The Spartans’ past seven opponents have made 33.3% of their 3-pointers, going 51-for-153 while shooting 49.2% overall. The Gophers were the third team during the recent stretch to hit 10 3s, along with the Scarlet Knights (10-for-27) and Indiana (10-for-31). Nebraska also hit 13 3-pointers in MSU’s loss there Jan. 2.
“Some of that is how we guarded,” Izzo said of the Minnesota game, “and that’s a little disturbing to me. I could use better words than disturbing, because I did not like the way we guarded. Our bigs didn’t guard very well.”
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That comes after a start to the season in which Izzo’s 3-point defense was among the nation’s elite again, allowing 28.5% through the first 10 games – which included wins over Arkansas, Kentucky and North Carolina and a loss to Duke. Opponents have shot 32.8% since.
Minnesota never trailed Wednesday after making 7 of 14 triples in the first half.
“We were guarding. That’s what we weren’t doing early,” Fears said. “And every time we would make a run or get close, they’d hit a big 3 or get an and-1 or get a loose ball. We just didn’t do nothing.
“We talked about the game plan, we scouted it, and that’s probably the most frustrating part every time. They’d hit a big 3 when we were in reaching distance. Credit to them, they made a lot of shots.”
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Illinois update
Izzo said he believes the Illini might be the best team in the Big Ten right now, even with star guard Kylan Boswell out with a broken hand and Saginaw product Ty Rodgers sidelined after knee surgery. They showed that Wednesday by throttling Northwestern, 88-44, for their 12th straight win to sit tied atop the league standings with U-M heading into the weekend.
The star of Brad Underwood’s transfer-laden roster is Keaton Wagler, a 6-foot-6 freshman guard who is averaging 17.9 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Over his last 16 games, Wagler is scoring 20.3 points while shooting 48% from 3-point range.
Andrej Stojakovic, the son of former NBA star Peja, averages 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds. The 6-7 junior guard, who spent his first year at Stanford and last season at California, snapped a three-game scoring slump with 17 against the Wildcats after he had a career-high 30 with nine rebounds against Maryland on Jan. 21. Forward David Mirkovic, a 6-9, 20-year-old freshman from Montenegro, averages 12.3 points and team-leading 8.2 rebounds.
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The Spartans have won three straight in the series.
Michigan State vs Illinois prediction
The Spartans’ disjointed offense gets a little bit back on track, but the Illini’s efficiency and ability to stretch a defense bothers MSU’s struggling perimeter defense. Illinois attempts to bring out Fears’ volatility, but he remains poised. However, the Illini’s elite efficiency helps them remain atop the Big Ten and puts the Spartans’ hope of a repeat in serious doubt with seven difficult games remaining. The pick: Illinois 80, Michigan State 72.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Next up: Illini
Matchup: No. 10 Michigan State (19-4, 9-3 Big Ten) vs. No. 6 Illinois (20-3, 11-1).
Tipoff: 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7; Breslin Center, East Lansing.
TV/radio: Fox; WJR-AM (760).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo has his hands full as Michigan State hosts red-hot Illinois
