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RALEIGH, North Carolina — The reality of the moment began to sink in for Jeremiah Fears just after midnight, as Friday night gave way to Saturday inside the Lenovo Center.
Oklahoma's standout freshman guard missed a 3-pointer with 24 seconds to play, and then teammate Jalon Moore fouled UConn's Alex Karaban with 19.4 ticks left on the clock. Oklahoma's season had slipped away in the final minutes of a 67-59 loss to two-time defending national champion UConn in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Fears untucked his jersey and lifted it to his face before staring off into the upper decks of the Lenovo Center as he walked down the court. Teammate Mo Wague came to his side and embraced him. It was perhaps one of the final moments of Fears' college career—a captivating freshman campaign in which he led the Sooners in scoring and assists and helped return the program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021.
After the final buzzer, after Oklahoma returned to its locker room in the back halls of the arena, Fears took off his No. 0 jersey for what was likely the final time. He posted a photo to his Instagram story with a caption that read it's "really over" and "good run 0." Asked afterward whether this was his final game at Oklahoma and at the college level, Fears was noncommittal.
"I haven't talked about anything yet," Fears said. "I'll speak further after this with the coaches and eventually my parents and just see what the next step is after this."
That next step, in all likelihood, is an early declaration for this summer's NBA Draft. The 18-year-old Fears is widely viewed as a first-round pick, with many believing he could be selected in the draft's lottery (the top-14 picks).
"How he's grown throughout the year, he's put himself in a position that's exciting," Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said. "I mean, I know they have a great support system with his mom and dad. I think he's really hurting. This kid wants to win so bad, and I know they'll sit down with his support system when the dust settles here. I'm sure that's when some decisions will be made."
(Photo: Zachary Taft-Imagn Images, USA TODAY Sports)
If Friday's opening-round loss to UConn was indeed the final game for Fears in an Oklahoma uniform, it provided another impressive peek into the future potential of the 6-foot-4 guard from Joliet, Illinois. Fears scored a game-high 20 points and added five rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. He turned the ball over just twice, and he would have finished with several more assists had Oklahoma not endured its second-worst shooting performance of the season, as the team made just 17 shots and went 32.1% from the field — including 3-of-17 from 3-point range (17.6%).
Fears, an SEC All-Freshman selection this season after reclassifying from the 2025 class to join OU a year early, finished the year as Oklahoma's leading scorer. He averaged 17.1 points per game along with 4.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.6 steals per outing. He helped lead the Sooners to a 13-0 start in nonconference play, endured a difficult start to the SEC season and then rebounded late in the year with big-time performance after big-time performance to help the program get over the hump and into the NCAA Tournament for the first time during Moser's tenure.
"I look back on just his youthfulness when he got here, not having played at this level, and then just how he grew and grew and grew," Moser said. "Then I look at when the start of the SEC, it seemed like everyone tried to come for his head. I look at his growth through that, fighting through hard. It was hard the way he started off. It wasn't easy for him, and he fought through that by getting in the gym more, watching more film, being coached. He's just so not entitled. I can't tell you how much was thrown his way for a young man, and he's so not entitled.
"He's such a great teammate, and he was a joy to coach and watch his growth—especially in an older league like this. It's one thing to reclassify, but then you're going into the SEC with a lot of older guards. His learning curve, he just really got better all year."