Night Two of Moneyball: Three takeaways for the Michigan State players

The 20th annual Moneyball Pro Am was back in action for its second night of the summer on Thursday night. Once again, it was filled with highlights, packed bleachers and competitive games.

Fans who made the trip out to Holt High School were treated to a triple overtime game, Coen Carr flying, and a 50-point scoring outburst from one Michigan State player.

I was there for Spartans Illustrated, taking it all in, and here were my three biggest takeaways from night two of the summer staple.

Carson Cooper is working on expanding his game  

An emphasis of summer basketball from coaches at all levels is experimentation and improvement. The summer is the time to make tweaks to your game, whether it’s adjusting your shooting form, working on a new move, or expanding your shooting range.

For the Michigan State players participating in Moneyball, they have the freedom to experiment on the court, a possibility they likely won’t be offered in the winter. One player who stood out on Thursday with their confidence to practice new aspects of their game was Carson Cooper.

Cooper, in his three seasons donning the green and white, has yet to make a three-pointer at the collegiate level. He knocked down two on Thursday. He also airballed a pair, but he’s not going to be expected to be a three-point threat this season. However, what he may be asked to do is make shots from the mid-range at an efficient rate, and be more of an offensive threat in the post.

He did exactly that at Moneyball.

Along with this pair of threes, the senior was effective and efficient from the midrange and scored on several post moves en route to a 32-point performance and a win in triple overtime.

One of Cooper’s most impressive buckets of the night was an and-one runner in the paint in double overtime. He converted the free throw to grab a three-point lead for his Tri-Star team at the time.

In high school, Cooper held only five offers, with no high-major offers outside of Michigan State. He was an unranked recruit on IMG Academy’s second-best team. Since arriving in East Lansing, all Cooper has done is improve.

In each season for Michigan State, Cooper has improved his points per game, rebounds per game and free throw percentage. Now, as a senior, he may have his biggest role yet.

Jaxon Kohler could be dethroned as the Moneyball MVP  

Jaxon Kohler has won the last two Moneyball MVP awards and was the leading scorer in the league both times. Many MSU players over the years have taken Moneyball lightly, but Kohler isn’t one of them. He’s often intense on offense, and his combination of dropsteps, step-throughs and post hooks is challenging to guard. Teams have even taken to doubling Kohler in the post, the ultimate compliment.

Kohler, playing for Team Faygo, is going to have strong competition this summer on his road to a three-peat as Moneyball MVP.

Kohler scored a respectable 26 points on Thursday in a win over Team Snipes. However, he was outscored by Faygo teammate, Miami transfer Divine Ugochukwu, who drained four threes. His performance was also overshadowed by a 43-point outburst from Samford transfer Trey Fort (Snipes).

For more on Fort and Ugochukwu, read my Moneyball takeaways from Tuesday.

The current frontrunner for MVP is Coen Carr. Carr stole the show on Thursday, scoring 50 points. He mixed in many highlight dunks, as well as three three-pointers and multiple jaw-dropping layups where he powered through defenders.

Carr’s Motorcars team is the only undefeated team after one week, and he’s my early favorite to dethrone Kohler and win Moneyball MVP.

Chemistry appears strong for Spartans  

Last season, a major reason for Michigan State’s success was the team chemistry. The Spartans were more talented than many gave them credit for, but they also played well together. The pieces that Tom Izzo put together fit just right, and even if you were just watching a game on TV, you could tell the players had fun playing together.

Throughout the first week of Moneyball, the chemistry is apparent, even considering the newcomers. Coen Carr and incoming freshman Cam Ward have shown a strong connection, from dancing with each other pregame to connecting on several alley-oops. Carr also had a friendly back-and-forth with Ugochukwu after one of his highlight dunks on Thursday. Incoming freshman Jordan Scott and redshirt-freshman Jesse McCulloch both were out with injuries, but were sitting on the benches laughing and supporting their Spartan teammates.

Nick Sanders, playing in the final game on Thursday night, had the loudest cheers of the night whenever he would knock in a shot, with several of his MSU teammates who stuck around after their game standing and celebrating.

Chemistry can often be taken for granted, but it is a critical aspect of successful teams that can be difficult to measure. The players spend lots of hours in the gym and weight room together, but seeing them bond in a relaxed environment like Moneyball is a positive sign.

Moneyball schedule update

It’s important to take every Moneyball observation with a grain of salt, as the basketball environment isn’t comparable to Big 10 action, but often some aspects do translate once winter rolls around.

There will be no Moneyball games next week due to the Independence Day holiday. When Moneyball returns, they will be at Eastern High School on July 8th and 10th, after which the games will return to Holt High School for the rest of the summer.