Michigan State Men’s Basketball Starts Practice for 2025-26 Season
9/22/2025 5:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Izzo Announces Carr, Cooper, Fears and Kohler as Team Captains
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State head men's basketball coach Tom Izzo and the Spartans held their first practice of the 2025-26 season on Monday afternoon.
Ahead of the team's first session, Izzo met with the media in the theatre in the men's basketball offices for 35 minutes prior to the group attending practice.
"Kind of a good day for me, though, because I'm not resigning," Izzo said. "The second thing is because I just had a granddaughter. I've got two now – about 8:30 this morning and it's the first day of practice. That's a pretty good day for me.
"But it's pretty hard to believe that it's the first day – the 22nd, it just seems like it's getting earlier and earlier. We're kind of excited to get going, as you could imagine. Our four main mainstays, the four guys that are back, that have all started here in (senior center Carson Cooper) Coop, (senior forward) Jaxon (Kohler), (junior forward) Coen (Carr) and (redshirt sophomore guard) Jeremy (Fears Jr.). I think they have all made significant improvement.
"So, we got 11 or 12 guys we can play. We played 11, 10 last year. I don't know if it will be the same minutes - last year they were all 22 to 18, 24 to 16 minutes. I do think we'll play people. And of course, our schedule is brutal, and yet I think that's going to be good for us in the long-run, maybe not in the short-run. I'm looking forward to that."
Izzo also announced that junior forward Coen Carr, senior center Carson Cooper, redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and senior forward Jaxon Kohler would serve as the team's captains this year. This is just the fifth time (1998-99, 2004-05, 2005-06), and the first since 2009-10, that the Spartans will have four captains in Izzo's 31 seasons at the helm of the MSU program.
"We have four captains for only the (fifth) time in my career," Izzo said. "It was picked by the players, and that was very encouraging for me. You'd say, 'Shouldn't there be one?' Jeremy was – people got different votes, but I mean it was really close. But it is the four guys that should … it's Jeremy, it's Coen, Jaxon and Coop. And Jaxon and Coop have really taken that. Their personalities are a bit different, but I've been really pleased with that part of it. Do I think Jeremy has got to be the guy to step up in the end, because you can't have four voices all the time? I do think that that kind of tells you what the team thinks of those guys, and that's exciting to me."
All four of the team's captains have started games during their careers and have combined for more than 300 games of experience at Michigan State. Fears Jr. started 36 games last year, averaging 7.2 ppg and a team-best 5.4 assists, which ranked third in the Big Ten. Kohler, who started 34 games, averaged 7.8 ppg and was among the top-10 in the Big Ten last year with 7.5 rpg. Carr appeared in all 37 games last year (1 start), averaging 8.1 ppg and 3.6 rpg, while Cooper averaged 5.0 ppg and 5.2 rpg in more than 17 minutes.
Michigan State's 2025-26 home schedule is arguably the best in program history. With home non-conference games against Arkansas (Nov. 8) and Duke (Dec. 6) in addition to 10 Big Ten contests, Michigan State will host 12 power conference opponents for the first time in the Izzo Era.
The men's and women's basketball programs will host MSU Madness on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Breslin Center (doors open at 8 p.m.).
Michigan State will play a pair of exhibition games to start the 2025-26 season, hosting Bowling Green on Thursday, Oct. 23 and a visit to play at Connecticut on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The regular season starts on Monday, Nov. 3 when the Spartans host Colgate, the first of three-straight games at the Breslin Center.
Michigan State finished the 2024-25 season with a 30-7 overall record, including a 17-3 mark in the Big Ten Conference, as the team won the regular season title for the 11th time under Head Coach Tom Izzo and was selected to the NCAA Tournament for the 27th-straight season. The Spartans advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time and finished the year ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25.
Ahead of the team's first session, Izzo met with the media in the theatre in the men's basketball offices for 35 minutes prior to the group attending practice.
"Kind of a good day for me, though, because I'm not resigning," Izzo said. "The second thing is because I just had a granddaughter. I've got two now – about 8:30 this morning and it's the first day of practice. That's a pretty good day for me.
"But it's pretty hard to believe that it's the first day – the 22nd, it just seems like it's getting earlier and earlier. We're kind of excited to get going, as you could imagine. Our four main mainstays, the four guys that are back, that have all started here in (senior center Carson Cooper) Coop, (senior forward) Jaxon (Kohler), (junior forward) Coen (Carr) and (redshirt sophomore guard) Jeremy (Fears Jr.). I think they have all made significant improvement.
"So, we got 11 or 12 guys we can play. We played 11, 10 last year. I don't know if it will be the same minutes - last year they were all 22 to 18, 24 to 16 minutes. I do think we'll play people. And of course, our schedule is brutal, and yet I think that's going to be good for us in the long-run, maybe not in the short-run. I'm looking forward to that."
Izzo also announced that junior forward Coen Carr, senior center Carson Cooper, redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and senior forward Jaxon Kohler would serve as the team's captains this year. This is just the fifth time (1998-99, 2004-05, 2005-06), and the first since 2009-10, that the Spartans will have four captains in Izzo's 31 seasons at the helm of the MSU program.
"We have four captains for only the (fifth) time in my career," Izzo said. "It was picked by the players, and that was very encouraging for me. You'd say, 'Shouldn't there be one?' Jeremy was – people got different votes, but I mean it was really close. But it is the four guys that should … it's Jeremy, it's Coen, Jaxon and Coop. And Jaxon and Coop have really taken that. Their personalities are a bit different, but I've been really pleased with that part of it. Do I think Jeremy has got to be the guy to step up in the end, because you can't have four voices all the time? I do think that that kind of tells you what the team thinks of those guys, and that's exciting to me."
All four of the team's captains have started games during their careers and have combined for more than 300 games of experience at Michigan State. Fears Jr. started 36 games last year, averaging 7.2 ppg and a team-best 5.4 assists, which ranked third in the Big Ten. Kohler, who started 34 games, averaged 7.8 ppg and was among the top-10 in the Big Ten last year with 7.5 rpg. Carr appeared in all 37 games last year (1 start), averaging 8.1 ppg and 3.6 rpg, while Cooper averaged 5.0 ppg and 5.2 rpg in more than 17 minutes.
Michigan State's 2025-26 home schedule is arguably the best in program history. With home non-conference games against Arkansas (Nov. 8) and Duke (Dec. 6) in addition to 10 Big Ten contests, Michigan State will host 12 power conference opponents for the first time in the Izzo Era.
The men's and women's basketball programs will host MSU Madness on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Breslin Center (doors open at 8 p.m.).
Michigan State will play a pair of exhibition games to start the 2025-26 season, hosting Bowling Green on Thursday, Oct. 23 and a visit to play at Connecticut on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The regular season starts on Monday, Nov. 3 when the Spartans host Colgate, the first of three-straight games at the Breslin Center.
Michigan State finished the 2024-25 season with a 30-7 overall record, including a 17-3 mark in the Big Ten Conference, as the team won the regular season title for the 11th time under Head Coach Tom Izzo and was selected to the NCAA Tournament for the 27th-straight season. The Spartans advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time and finished the year ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25.
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