Tom Izzo reacts to Jeremy Fears technical foul vs. Minnesota: 'I don't even know if I'm gonna start him next game"

Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears Jr. was assessed a technical foul during the second half of Wednesday’s 76-73 loss against Minnesota. He appeared to kick his leg out toward Gophers guard Langston Reynolds.

Fears appeared to hit Reynolds below the belt, but Reynolds didn’t react. He appeared fine after the potentially dangerous shot and a common foul was assessed on the play before taking it to the monitor to review. After replay, it was upgraded to a technical.

At the time, Michigan State was trailing 46-40 with 13:28 left in regulation. Head coach Tom Izzo subbed him out immediately upon the play. He later checked back with with 11:44 to go.

“I sat him for a while, and I don’t even know if I’m gonna start in the next game,” Izzo said. “But I stuck up for him too because of what happened in the last game. I’ll just say what happened in the last game, the way that was handled was poorly, too. And so that starts everything, but Jeremy’s got to grow up a little bit, but at least he played harder. I’m worried about my other (three) guys not playing hard enough.”

Izzo is referring to Fears’ Flagrant foul on Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg. The Wolverines star was going up for a breakaway dunk before Fears collided hard with him. After the game, Michigan head coach Dusty May called several plays from the Spartans “dirty.”

Still, Fears finished the Michigan game with 31 points, seven assists and five rebounds. This came despite an 83-71 loss. Fears followed that up with just 10 points against the Gophers, but finished with a double-double with 11 assists.

On the season, Fears is averaging 14.9 points and 8.8 assists per game. His assist totals ranks second at the Division I level.

It remains to be seen what Izzo will ultimately do as punishment for Fears’ technical foul. However, there’s little to no upside in keeping him on the bench for Saturday night’s home stand against No. 5 Illinois. The Fighting Illini are coming off a 40-point win against Northwestern on Wednesday and have won their last 12 games.

Tip-off for the matchup in the Big Ten is set for 8 p.m. ET. Fox will carry the national broadcast.