LANSING >> Thank God. That’s who Jeremy Fears Jr. credits for the way the past 16 months have turned from some of the hardest in his life to some of the sweetest.

It began with tragedy. Right before Christmas 2023, Jeremy Fears Jr. was shot in the thigh while visiting his hometown of Joliet, Illinois, on holiday break. After a three-hour surgery dislodged the bullet in his leg, he spent the next three months watching his Michigan State team from the sidelines, a freshman year gone awry.

Then came triumph. After rehabbing the injury, Fears came back as the Spartans’ starting point guard. Under his leadership, the group went 30-7, won the Big Ten for the first time in five years and marched to the Elite Eight as a two-seed. He threw out the first pitch at a Chicago White Sox game a few weeks ago. And at the NBA Draft, his brother Jeremiah went seventh overall to the New Orleans Pelicans.

“Can’t do nothing but thank God,” Fears said Thursday, reflecting on it all at the Moneyball Pro-Am. “… Thank God that I was able to have that ability. My teammates, the coaches trusted and believed in me, and really just being able to accomplish something special.”

It was a special season in both what Michigan State accomplished and what Fears overcame, but now the page turns to the sequel: Fears’ sophomore year, thanks to a medical redshirt granted a year ago. As the only returning guard from last year’s regular rotation, Fears enters this season with high expectations for both himself and his team.

In his first season back from his wound, Fears averaged 23.7 minutes per game (the most among this year’s returners) and played in 36 out of the 37, missing one game to illness. He averaged 7.2 points on 39.7% shooting and notched 5.4 assists per game to 2.0 turnovers. More important than the stats, he became a leader for his group on the court and on the bench, possessing the kind of fire that Tom Izzo loves from his point guards.

As last season becomes mere prologue, Fears is still making those final recovery steps from a gunshot that in other circumstances could have ended his career. In the heat of the season, Fears, Izzo and other prognosticators kept their view of his health assessments close to — but not quite — 100%. It felt good to get on the court after months of rehabbing his injury. In hindsight though, Fears figures he was only around 85 to 90% of his capabilities. There were areas he didn’t quite get back to normal so quickly.

“I never had my legs under me,” Fears reflected. “… Early in the season, if you watch, I was tripping a lot.”

Hey, he made it work, like when he dished a seated alley-oop to Coen Carr in a December win over Nebraska. But Fears is thankful to have regained his footing (so is the mop kid at Breslin Center). As trivial as it may seem, Fears is also excited that he doesn’t have to make a whole routine of getting on the court anymore. No more five-minute bike rides and water breaks just to make sure he could get loose enough to practice. Now, he can just step on the court and play, like he did Thursday at Moneyball.

Getting that extra 10 to 15% has come from the usual sources of offseason training — practices, drills, weight-room sessions and the like. It’s a remarkably normal offseason, maybe the first in which he can truly feel comfortable. Two years ago, he came to school as a freshman learning everything new. Last summer, he was still recovering from the shooting.

“That whole offseason I went into the next year, which was last year, it’s like, I can’t let the team down,” Fears said. “You know, I can’t let Coach (Izzo) down. He stayed loyal to me; he didn’t go get any players point guard-wise. And just try to do everything I can to win games and be the best person and player I can be.”

There’s normalcy this summer, and the potential for even more growth.

“Usually they say people make their best jumps — especially at Michigan State — their freshman and sophomore year,” Fears said.

Where does that potential lie? It was no secret that Fears wanted to improve his 3-point shot in the offseason. He only took 38 of them, hitting 13 of them for a respectable 34.2%. Getting that shot to a level he can lean on it a little more is a priority, if not for his own scoring then to open up another dimension of his options running the offense.

Fears got some valuable mentorship on that front when training with Jeremiah for the younger brother’s NBA Draft process. Their agent Mike Miller, the former 17-year NBA sharpshooter and two-time champion, trained them through the month of May. Fears has also put up countless shots at Breslin Center.

“Obviously he’s one of the greatest shooters,” Fears said. “So just trying to take a little bit, you know, he’s helping me and giving me some workouts to do on shooting, and just his knowledge for basketball. So I just think all around, my game has improved and got a lot better. I got smarter, got stronger, and the game has slowed down for me.”

There’s another area where the usual offseason workload may also help unlock another area of the 10 to 15% that was missing last year: the explosive hops all over the 6-foot-2 guard’s high school tape. He showed flashes of it situationally, like a bouncy block he made in the NCAA Tournament against New Mexico. Getting that with regularity would be another massive step — in due time. Fears has been putting in the work, posting photos from Breslin Center late at night after workouts.

The tricky part for Fears or any other athlete coming back from a situation like this is that steps come incrementally, not all at once. That’s why his abilities last season were impressive, and why his further advancement this offseason is of such intrigue. That next leap he takes — metaphorical and real — will be telling.

“Something tragic happened,” Fears said. “And God blessed me and everybody around me with some successful things and some memories that we won’t ever forget.”