The Fuel Behind Carr's Monster Louisville Game for MSU
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BUFFALO, N.Y. --- The performance on Saturday from the most athletic player in college basketball was one to remember.
Third-seeded Michigan State advanced to the Sweet Sixteen on Saturday with a 77-69 win over (6) Louisville. The Spartans wouldn't have done it without Coen Carr, who was all over the place (in the best way) with a 21-point, 10-rebound performance.
Carr had played 105 college games prior to Saturday. He had never recorded a double-double or even recorded 10 rebounds before. Carr chose a pretty good game to do it for the first time. The 21 points were one point shy of matching his career-high, too. There were also two blocks thrown in.
"It means a lot," Carr said after the game. "Just to be in March Madness, one of the greatest stages on Earth, and to have a game like this, I just credit it to my coaches, my teammates, just for always believing in me. They want me to go out there and be aggressive, and that's what I tried to focus on today."
What Caused Big Night
One might understandably think that one of Carr's signature dunks was the type of thing that spurred a game like this, but the words of Carr and head coach Tom Izzo indicate that it was something else: defense and rebounding.
"I think just being aggressive from the start [helped]," Carr said. "I feel like, also, my rebounding and the defensive end can also propel me on the offensive end. So starting off there, rebounding the ball, attacking the glass hard, just getting comfortable early, just being able to touch the basketball and things like that, I feel like that helps me a lot."
"It makes me sleep easier at night," Izzo said about Carr's performance. "I'll tell you that right now. He was beautiful to watch, and it wasn't that he hit a three, and it wasn't that he hit a couple of free throws. It was the rebounding and the defense."
"I say that because even he said to me after, 'You're right, Coach, it just kind of got me going.' He was the only guy I felt on my team that didn't run out of gas. Jeremy [Fears Jr.] spent it a couple of times, but Coen just kept going and going and going. I kept asking him if he's tired, and one time he said, 'kinda,' and I said, 'too bad,' and 'I ain't taking you out now.'"
The dunks are still pretty darn cool, though. Carr had a few of them in this game, most memorably getting the net tangled on one of them during the second half. Someone also asked him what his favorite part of dunking is after the game.
"For me, I would say the energy it brings to everybody: the crowd, the little kids, the band section, the coaches, the bench, just everybody," Carr responded. "It's for me, but also it's for everybody else. I like to see the gym have energy, and that's what I try to bring every time."
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.
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