EAST LANSING (WILX) — Many young basketball players in the Mid-Michigan area dream of one day playing for Tom Izzo’s Spartans, but that wasn’t always the case for MSU senior center Carson Cooper, a former all-state soccer goalie at Jackson Northwest High School.

“I can’t even say there was a dream, honestly. I didn’t even know this was like a reality or something that could happen,” Cooper said. “So for me, like I mean, I grew up playing soccer. I wasn’t even a basketball guy up until junior year of high school. So, the reality has exceeded my expectations of what could happen.”

In this new era of college athletics with thousands of players entering the transfer portal every year, Cooper has done things the old-fashioned way, staying four years at the local school and being voted a team

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