A Michigan State basketball player is under scrutiny again after he kicked an opposing player in the groin.
And it isn’t the first time he’s apparently done it.
Spartans point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. was called for a technical after he flung his right foot up into the groin of Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau in the first half of Michigan State’s 90-80 loss to its in-state rival on Sunday.
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo did not believe that it had been done on purpose and called it a “reaction.”
Izzo added that he “chewed him out” for what happened, but after watching the replay after the game, the Spartans’ head coach added that “sometimes that stuff happens.”
“I’m sick of it being one-sided,” Izzo told reporters. “That’s what upset me about the first time. Fears will get his lunch from me. I wonder if some of their guys will get their lunch from what happened in the first game, that didn’t get public? But I don’t condone anything. I don’t think he tried to kick him on purpose. If you watch it, it was like he didn’t even know he did it. And then he probably said, ‘oh that’s Fears, let’s go.’ Don’t condone it. Don’t know exactly what happened, except he did get pushed in the back and that’s why he got the foul.”
Sunday’s incident was not the first of its kind involving Fears.
Earlier in the season, Fears had been given a technical foul in a game against Minnesota for a similar leg swing that hit Langston Reynolds’ groin area.
Fears was also under scrutiny after an incident during a game against Illinois when head coach Brad Underwood wanted the officials to take a second look at a play where he thought the Spartans player had intentionally tripped David Mirkovic after stopping in front of him.
“Fears has done a hell of a job since getting publicly reprimanded by everybody and he’s done a hell of a job. Nobody’s tougher on him than me,” Izzo said. “Nobody will be tougher on him than me. I was proud of the way he played and maybe not proud of that one incident, but gang this is a physical sport. It’s a physical game and that’s the way it works.”
Fears finished Sunday’s game with 22 points and nine assists.
