EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears is joining the team for an upcoming trip overseas and plans to play for Tom Izzo for the first time since he was shot last winter.
“I'm thankful for this opportunity to be able to play some scrimmages and be able to play again,” Fears said Tuesday after practicing with the team. “Who knows what could have happened? But I'm still able to play at 99 percent, back with my team, back in the program that I love. I can't really complain.”
Izzo said the redshirt freshman is close to 100 percent after watching him in recent practices, preparing to leave next week for three scrimmages in Spain.
“The last 1 percent would be just getting back to playing basketball every day,” Fears said. “Obviously, I didn't play for seven months.”
Fears, a five-star recruit at Joliet West High School in Illinois, was shot in the leg on Dec. 23 while on vacation in his hometown and endured a three-hour surgery to remove the bullet from his left thigh. Investigators believe the victims — Fears and an unidentified woman — were inside the residence with several other people when a suspect armed with a handgun walked through the front door and opened fire before fleeing.
Fears acknowledged that a lot has changed since he first set foot on campus a year ago.
“I'm stronger, mentally and physically, on the court and in life,” he said. “Nothing can stop you except yourself. As long as I keep trying and moving forward every day, everything will get better.”
Fears was granted a redshirt, giving him four more seasons of eligibility after being limited to 12 games last season. He averaged 3.5 points and 3.3 assists in 15-plus minutes, and had a season-high 10 assists in a win over Stony Brook two days before he was fired.
