Locked On Spartans - Daily Podcast On Michigan State Spartans Football & Basketball · Locked On Podcast Network, Matt Sheehan

BITTERSWEET: Carson Cooper, Jaxon Kohler enter MSU basketball senior night as HUGE SUCCESS stories

·34 min·2 clips

Jackson Kohler’s rebounding numbers put him alongside Draymond Green, Nick Ward, and Matt Costello.

1. Locked On Spartans focuses on Michigan State’s senior night at Breslin Center against Rutgers and the senior careers of Carson Cooper and Jackson Kohler. 2. Host Ross Jackson leads the show as a Michigan State basketball analyst, and Dalton Shetler joins later to break down women’s basketball tournament stakes. 3. The episode asks whether Carson Cooper and Jackson Kohler represent elite Tom Izzo development stories and what Michigan State needs from senior night and the postseason. 4. Jackson says Cooper arrived from IMG’s B team with offers from Vermont, Duquesne, American, and Eastern Michigan before Tom Izzo and his staff recruited him. 5. He notes that Cooper played about six minutes per game as a freshman instead of redshirting, then gradually became a more complete post player. 6. Jackson points to EvanMaya.com ranking Cooper as the sixth most valuable defensive player in the Big Ten and the best on Michigan State. 7. He highlights Cooper’s block rate, lower foul rate, and improved perimeter defense against switched guards. 8. Jackson also cites Cooper’s offense, including 65% shooting at the rim, 47% on other twos, and 78% from the free-throw line. 9. He calls that free-throw number fifth among centers nationally and compares it with Cooper’s freshman mark of 47%. 10. Jackson then turns to Kohler and says his rebounding profile matches what he calls Spartan grit and toughness. 11. He cites Kohler’s 14% offensive rebounding percentage and 24.8% defensive rebounding percentage from BartTorvik.com. 12. Jackson compares those rebounding marks with Nick Ward, Matt Costello, Draymond Green, and Marcus Bingham in Michigan State history. 13. He adds that Kohler is now an automatic double-team in the paint and has the lowest turnover percentage of his career. 14. Jackson also mentions Kohler’s near-40% three-point shooting and 87% free-throw shooting as part of the senior’s development. 15. The show then widens to a senior-night stat from Isaac Trotter about only 22 high-major scholarship players celebrating senior night after playing at one school. 16. Jackson says Michigan State has two such players in the Big Ten and treats that as part of the program’s identity. 17. The episode’s tone is conversational and data-heavy, with Jackson jumping between stat sites, game notes, and historical comparisons. 18. Shetler’s segment is more bracket-focused, using committee ranking numbers and specific February results to explain the women’s team’s position. 19. Listeners who follow Michigan State basketball history, senior-night storylines, and bracket math will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting only a quick game preview without roster history or women’s tournament context can skip it.

As heard by us

Senior-night emotion, bracket math, and Spartan stakes in one fast-moving listen.

Senior night at Breslin Center gives the episode its emotional core, but the discussion does not linger there for long. It moves from Spartan reaction to Big Ten tournament seeding, and the UCLA win over Nebraska keeps the two-seed path alive from a likely three.

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Why you'd press play

You want the senior-night emotion and the cleanest read on Michigan State’s Big Ten seed path.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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