Coen Carr throws down insane windmill on wide-open fastbreak vs. Purdue

Thursday was one of the more fun Michigan State basketball games in a while.

Michigan State took an early punch to the mouth and responded with one of its own to take a lead before going back-and-forth with Purdue for the next 30, or so, minutes before really taking control and not looking back in the final minutes.

Throughout the game, there were several highlights that Michigan State fans are going to remember for a very long time. As you can imagine, Coen Carr was featured in several of these highlights.

In the first half, Carr threw down a nasty dunk over a 7-foot-4 big man that silenced the Mackey Arena crowd, but that wasn’t even his best dunk of the game.

In the second half, off of a Kur Teng steal, Carr found himself with a wide open lane and a chance to throw down whatever dunk he wanted. It’s not often you see Carr with nothing but room in front of him, but he didn’t disappoint with his breakaway windmill, giving fans flashbacks to that Braden Dawson windmill at Purdue in 2013 — it was on the same exact end of the floor, too.

Carr took off from about five feet further out than Dawson, but the impact that the dunk had was similar. Both guys stunned a usually-rowdy Mackey Arena. Carr’s dunk put Michigan State up by six with under 10 minutes left, and you could almost feel the uneasiness in the crowd.

This version of Coen Carr raises MSU’s ceiling

It may not have been his best all-around game, but Carr was solid, finishing with 11 points and five rebounds on 5-of-9 shooting. He did miss an open three, but that’s not his game. He was aggressive in slashing toward the hoop all night and that really made Purdue uncomfortable defensively.

Michigan State’s half-court offense is so much better when Jeremy Fears drives to the rim and Carr is slashing toward the basket. That draws the attention of about 3-4 defenders, usually leaving someone open on the perimeter. If the defense doesn’t totally crash, Fears can either go up, draw a foul, or hit a cutting Carr for a dunk.

This team is so much better when the Spartans’ veterans are all on the same page and executing the half-court offense as planned.

The Coen Carr we saw on Thursday at Purdue raises this team’s ceiling exponentially.