Michigan State basketball starter minutes grow: ‘We’ll sleep in April’

EAST LANSING – Time is winding down in Michigan State basketball’s season, but the minutes are ramping up for Tom Izzo’s core four.

It’s not only point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. logging more and more minutes since a season-ending injury to backup Divine Ugochukwu. Bigs Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper all have seen an uptick in court time over the past month as the eighth-ranked Spartans head toward the 2026 Big Ten tournament in Chicago.

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“Like coach said [Monday], ‘We’ll sleep in April,’” Cooper said after practice Tuesday, March 10. “We’re gonna work, and we’ll sleep in April and we can be tired in April. Right now, I think we all feel pretty good.”

Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr., left, slaps hands with Coen Carr, right, after Carr’s dunk against Northwestern during the second half on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

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How this will play out in the postseason remains to be determined. If the Spartans are to capture their first Big Ten tourney title since 2019, they will need to win three games in three days starting Friday at United Center. And even if MSU just gets to Sunday’s championship game, it will be a quick turn and back on the road to whatever NCAA tournament site Izzo and Co. will learn of on Sunday night.

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And there, they’ll have to win two games in three days to advance to the second weekend. Do that, and they’ll need to do it again in Chicago, Houston, San Jose or Washington to reach Indianapolis, and the program’s first Final Four since 2019.

“We want to play till Sunday and try to do something special,” said Fears, who was named a third-team All-American by Sporting News on Wednesday after earning first-team All-Big Ten recognition Tuesday.

While Fears has been a workhorse all season, the importance for Izzo maximizing usage of his third-year sophomore point guard (and Bob Cousy Award…

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Publish date : 2026-03-12 10:26:00

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