ATLANTA — There was a stir in the crowd near the Michigan bench midway through the first half of Friday’s Sweet 16 game against Auburn, but the mild disturbance wasn’t game-related.
The cause? Michigan State forward Coen Carr, still in full uniform, made a surprise entrance in the crowd an hour after his Spartans beat Ole Miss in his first career start. It took Carr nearly five minutes to cover the approximately 40 steps from the playing floor to the concourse level as he accommodated every request from Michigan State fans for selfies, handshakes and hugs.
“My mom had called our operations manager and said she wanted me to come upstairs and take pictures with my family,” said Carr, who realized everybody became “family” as he made his way through the crowd. “It was cold, and my jersey was still wet. But it was fun.”
A fun moment on a special night for Carr. Special because the sophomore forward made his first career start in his first collegiate game played in his home state, and made a huge impact scoring 15 points in a tightly contested game.
“He made some big-time plays — he hit an open 3, an offensive rebound and that dunk — and it was big to see him play like that,” said Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears. “He made some big plays and came up big down the stretch when we really needed him.”
One of those big plays was a crowd-pleaser with a steal by Fears leading to an emphatic dunk by Carr.
While Carr grew up in Stockbridge, Georgia, just over 20 miles south of Atlanta, it’s been a while since he had played a game in his home state. After playing his first two years of high school basketball in the Georgia (Dutchtown High School in Hampton, Georgia), he finished his career at Legacy Early College in Greenville, South Carolina, where he was ranked 25th in the ESPN 100 Class of 2023.
In their latest effort, Carr played a game-high 32 minutes (matching Jase Richardson) and shook off a slow start to finish with 15 points while making six of 10 shots.
While the decision to give Carr his first start had more to do with matchups against Ole Miss, coach Tom Izzo’s confidence in starting him stems from his 13.7 point per game average in three NCAA tournament games, nearly double his scoring average during the Big Ten season (7.2 ppg).
“His best basketball has been the last month,” Izzo said, going into Michigan State’s first NCAA tournament game last week. “I think this tournament could springboard him into a whole ‘nother level.”
Izzo is hoping Carr can help springboard the Spartans to the Final Four because “we don’t put up any banners for Elite Eights. We put up banners for championships and Final Fours and national championships.”
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An even better special moment for Carr, his family and his local followers: having them watch a Michigan State net-cutting ceremony on Sunday. The task against top-seeded Auburn will be daunting for a Michigan State team that hasn’t reached a Final Four since 2019.
“It’ll be a lot different than Ole Miss because they’ve got two big guys who are really physical and guards who can shoot,” Carr said. “We have to guard the 3-point line and just make it tough for them.”
Due to Auburn’s size, Carr will likely come off the bench in Sunday’s regional final. Perhaps going back to the bench will take away the edge he felt making his first start in his first college game in his home state.
“I definitely was amped up; to be honest I think it made me play a little worse,” he said. “I definitely was hyped. I’ve got a lot of family that hasn’t seen me play in forever.”
When earlier in the week Carr found out he would be making his first career start, he kept the news to himself. He wanted to keep it a surprise to his mother, Cynthia Carr, who was celebrating her birthday on March 28.
The gifts he gave his mom — a surprise start and a victory — were special. That postgame request she had — for her son to come into the crowd for the victory stroll up the aisle — was icing on the cake.
“When all the fans came up, it was definitely wild to see all the support that we had,” said Carr, who stayed on the concourse a good 30 minutes before going back to the locker room. “It was a crazy moment; it was a good time.”
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