After missing the dramatic win over Oregon in February due to illness, Jeremy Fears Jr. faced down the Ducks for the first time this season - and he didn’t miss a beat.

With Fears at the front, MSU got off to a quick start on Friday afternoon. Fears facilitated early, with an assist to Kohler for three from the top of the arc. Just a minute later, Fears fought through traffic and - with the shot clock expiring - hit a mid-range jumper to push the Spartans to an early 8-0 lead.

“Jeremy Fears tonight, I thought, played one of his best games” Izzo claimed, but made it clear this performance wasn’t his ceiling. “[He] missed a couple layups and this and that. But he guarded very well ... he's growing.”

Much attention is often put on the stat line, and Jeremy put up a solid one against the Ducks, ending the game with 11 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, and just 2 turnovers.

But you have to look at the opponents’ metrics to truly understand the impact of Fears’ efforts on the court.

You wouldn’t be able to tell that he was unfamiliar guarding Oregon’s front man, Jackson Shelstad, by the way that he held him to only two points in the first 33 minutes of the game. Shelstad averages 13.4 points on the season but on Friday was held to just eight.

“Jeremy did a hell of a job on the Shelstad kid," Izzo said. "The Shelstad kid is really good."

And Fears’ teammates were not shy with praise for his efforts either.

“I thought he guarded the ball well, guarded Shelstad well, made everything hard," Coen Carr said, championing Fears's defensive effort.

There is still an element of Fears's game on Friday - and it could be argued also the previous Sunday against the Michigan Wolverines - that just felt different.

Charged, maybe.

In the Spartans’ senior day victory against UM, the game started with some chirping between Fears and Michigan’s Tre Donaldson. Fears intercepted a lob from Goldin to Donaldson but ended up in a tight spot, barely managing to bounce a wild ball off of Donaldson and out of bounds to extend the possession. A verbal exchange quickly ensued between the two point guards.

Izzo quickly came off the bench to have a few animated words with Fears - one can only assume in an attempt to calm him down - but it was evident that a fire was lit under Fears from that moment on.

And it was perhaps this trash-talking energy that baited the Wolverines, leading to an overt offensive foul on the next UM possession, drawn by Fears.

The game never really quieted down after that moment.