WATCH: Michigan State's Carson Cooper Speaks After Scoring Career High
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- No. 18 Michigan State earned its 11th win of the season with an 80-62 victory over Western Michigan on Monday.
It was another all-around team effort from the Spartans, one that included contributions from a player who hasn't necessarily been as relevant this season -- junior center Carson Cooper.
Cooper recorded a career-high 13 points in the win. He also posted six rebounds and two blocks.
Cooper addressed the media after the victory. You can watch some of his media availability below:
Below is a partial transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's opening statement of his postgame press conference:
Izzo: "Well, I can't say I love these games. You play against your former guys, especially a guy that has given the program and this university itself so much time, both as a player and as a coach. So, maybe I didn't do a very good job. But he did a better job than I did. I thought we had some great practices. I was so excited about the way we were practicing. I actually told you guys [the media] I felt good; I'll never do that again. ... I thought we played like we thought we were going to win the game. And we had two or three turnovers right off the bat. 17 turnovers should be un-American. I should be arrested for that. And give them credit now, so I'll make sure to take no credit from them -- I mean, they played hard, but we threw some balls right to them. I guess that counted as steals, but it was self-defense; they were protecting themselves from the ball coming at them. So, I was disappointed. You can practice that good -- and my first key to the game was, 'Are we mature enough to take the practice to the game?' And the answer is no. We were not. And so, that's my chore now with the next five days. Usually, usually, you don't practice as well and maybe you play better. So, that part was disappointing. How in the hell -- we shot it OK -- but how we scored 80 points with 17 turnovers is beyond me. So, there was something good there. One of them is you make your free throws, and we didn't get to the line as much, but we made our free throws. I think that was one good thing."
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