CHICAGO — Jeremy Fears Jr. didn’t mince words with how he felt about Michigan State’s Friday night loss.
“It’s kind of embarrassing for us,” Fears said after the Spartans’ 88-84 defeat against UCLA. “Obviously, they [UCLA] played good. Credit to them, not taking anything away from them… This game, they out-rebounded us, out-physicaled us, made the winning plays. And it was just like, ‘the next [loss] is your season [ending].’ So something’s gotta change soon.”
Fears had a pretty good game on the stat sheet. He scored 21 points (7-for-14 shooting) and dished out 13 assists. That passed Cassius Winston for the most assists in a single season in program history. Fears is up to 294 assists on the year; Winston had 291 during his 2018-19 season.
MSU and Fears will now await their NCAA Tournament draw, with the bracket set to come out Sunday evening. The Spartans still might be in decent shape to get a 2 seed, but that status is in some doubt after being eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament in just one game. Another Quad 1 win over a team like the Bruins would have probably sealed it.
More from Fears Postgame
More from Fears on Loss
The most glaring problem from Friday night was the poor on-ball defense against the Bruins’ guards. UCLA point guard Donovan Dent seemed to be cutting past Fears or Jordan Scott at will, often leading to kick-outs for open three-point tries…