For most of the season, Jeremy Fears has been willing Michigan State to wins. He’s put the Spartans on his back on several occasions, and they likely weren’t 21-5 entering Sunday’s game against Ohio State without him.
The Spartans aren’t 22-5 without Carson Cooper.
The senior big man had one of his best games as a Spartan on Sunday afternoon, scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in a six-point win over the Buckeyes. When no one else was really playing well outside of Jordan Scott, Cooper quietly had one of his best games and it didn’t get talked about enough.
Tom Izzo was critical of Cooper’s defense in the post-game presser, but the senior big man from IMG Academy is the main reason Michigan State was able to hold on against Ohio State.
I wouldn’t say his defense was bad, but he obviously had some mishaps on that end. He had to play 34 minutes because Jaxon Kohler was in foul trouble all game and Michigan State couldn’t afford to run a post of Jesse McCulloch and Cam Ward for too long — maybe next year, but they’re not ready to carry the load quite yet.
Cooper played the most minutes he’s played all season and he didn’t let his offense suffer. Quite the opposite actually, putting up a career high in scoring.
Michigan State’s not winning on Sunday without Cooper’s career game. Clutch.
The ‘Core 4’ have to be more consistent
Izzo spoke after the UCLA win about his core guys playing well together and how important that is for this team. They just haven’t consistently played well at the same time.
They all played well against UCLA, but then there’s a game like Ohio State where only one shows up.
Cooper was on his game, but Jeremy Fears struggled a bit more than usual, Coen Carr kind of disappeared and missed two big free throws near the end, and Kohler was in foul trouble throughout, playing a total of 17 minutes — his second-lowest of the season.
These guys need to get back on track and start feeding off each other more. It’s at least nice that there’s always at least one who shows up in a big way.