Here's what the Spartans' center had to say after one of the biggest games of his career.
pulled off the IMG Academy B team as a zero-star recruit has slowly gotten better and better and better over his time in East Lansing. All that work fromMichigan State's Carson Cooper speaks after a 76-74 win against Purdue at Mackey Arena on Thursday, Feb.
26, 2026. | Jacob Cotsonika, Michigan State Spartans on SI "It's up there," Cooper said after the game when asked where this win ranks in his career. "I think, Big Ten wins, it's probably top-two, for sure. I think my early years, winning at Michigan. There's a history of us not being super successful here at Mackey . "Obviously, the environment, it's like the . It's a top-three environment hardest environment to play in in the country. So this one feels really good, but we're not gonna --- I feel like Coach probably told --- but we're gonna feel really good about it for the next five hours, and then we're gonna think about Indiana."Michigan State's Carson Cooper dishes out a pass against the Northwestern Wildcats during a game at the Breslin Center on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI The development of Cooper continues to be outstanding during his time at Michigan State. He began his career as a freshman essentially just trying to take advantage of any minutes he could get. There were games where Cooper was a DNP, and sometimes it didn't seem certain that the Cooper experiment would work out. In a credit to Cooper's will, he stuck it out. A lot of guys in his position would have transferred elsewhere after any of his first three seasons with the team. As a junior last year, he accepted a bench role that offered up 17 minutes per game; not many upperclassmen would be OK with that. Izzo has said a few times that he regrets not redshirting Cooper as a freshman a little bit, because it certainly seems like there is still some things that can be unlocked in Cooper's game. He's just going to have to do it at the professional level. This version of Cooper is still very effective, though. He had an efficient offensive night, highlighted by a nice spin move in the post that led to a ferocious dunk, but he also had a better night defensively. Cooper kept senior Purdue big man Trey Kaufman-Renn in check most of the night, holding him to 10 points. He also had a nice contest on a Kaufman-Renn shot in the final moments, getting MSU one of its three straight stops to end the game and get the win. Michigan State's Carson Cooper looks for room as Ohio State's Christoph Tilly defends during the second half on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesNever again miss one major story related to your beloved Spartans when you sign up for our 100% FREE newsletter that comes straight to your email with the latest news.A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.Daily Dunk: Best College Basketball Bets Today
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