Porter Moser just made an unexpected splash on Saturday by securing a commitment from 2025 point guard Jeremiah Fears who has decided to reclassify to the 2024 class.
NEWS: Top-40 recruit Jeremiah Fears, a former Illinois commit, will reclassify to 2024 and has committed to Oklahoma, a source tells @On3Recruits.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) July 20, 2024
Story: https://t.co/WiV32gFvXa pic.twitter.com/6isIugNHXi
Fears is listed as the 24th-ranked prospect in the ESPN 100 for the 2025 class and had initially committed to Brad Underwood and Illinois. The combo guard wanted to see the floor a year ahead of time and Oklahoma had an urgent need for more guard depth after the departures of Otegah Oweh, Milos Uzan, and Javian McCollum.
The decision to go with Oklahoma may seem odd, with almost no recruiting ties or signs of a match beforehand, but it was a natural fit for both sides involved. It also became clear that Fears would have a tough time seeing the floor if he wanted to play in 2024 with the Fighting Illini after they picked up transfer commitments from guards Kylan Boswell (Arizona) and Tre White (Louisville).
Fears is the younger brother of current Michigan State sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and he was able to gain valuable insight into the recruitment process after seeing his older sibling's approach.
247 Sports Director of Scouting Adam Finkelstein had high praise for the Arizona Compass Prep product and viewed Fears as a "scoring guard who has a ton of natural game with the ball in his hands." Fears echoed a similar sentiment about his skillsets and told ESPN " I can help in transition and scoring or playmaking. There is a great opportunity at OU and I know the SEC will be tough. I am ready to work and get on campus."
Fears will join a 2024-25 Oklahoma roster that has a lot of uncertainty after six players transferred to other schools. As it stands now, Fears will be in the same backcourt with transfer guards Duke Miles (High Point), Brycen Goodine (Fairfield), and Kobe Elvis (Dayton). It'll be interesting to see how this version of players can gel together, but adding a top-25 talent in Fears can only help matters.
Fears is also the highest-rated Oklahoma men's basketball recruit since Trae Young. Oklahoma isn't expecting Fears to make the same impact as the current NBA All-Star point guard, but if he can live up to his four-star billing then at least it's a step in the right direction for a program that hasn't made the NCAA tournament under Moser.