How Coen Carr became nation’s top dunker for Michigan State basketball

EAST LANSING – Coen Carr believed he could fly. And then he did.

Baskets have been quaking in his wake since.

“The first time I dunked?” the Michigan State basketball junior said Monday, March 16, repeating the question asked of him shortly after a practice filled with rim attacks inside the Spartans’ practice facility. A few months after exploding a backboard in his hometown.

Advertisement

That prompted Carr to drive down memory lane and deliver his recollection of his origin story as maybe the best dunker in all of basketball right now – better than almost every NBA player, many feel, even as a 21-year-old college player heading into his third NCAA Tournament appearance.

Michigan State forward Coen Carr (55) dunks against UCLA during the first half of Big Ten tournament quarterfinal at United Center in Chicago on Friday, March 13, 2026.

RELATED: Tom Izzo’s March Madness message to Michigan State basketball is clear

The Atlanta native’s debut dunk happened when he was 14, before he was about to enter ninth grade. Carr went nearly a year trying to throw one down when he was a 6-foot eighth grader but couldn’t. Then one day that summer, while playing fullcourt with his middle school teammate after their season and school ended, the adrenaline kicked in and the burst arrived.

Advertisement

“I got it finally,” he said. “That was a great day for me. … It wasn’t a game or nothing. It was just an open run. I didn’t dunk in a game until ninth grade started.”

Asked if he felt “the world change that day,” Carr’s comedic side kicked in as he deadpanned: “Yeah, for sure. It was over, it was over. Everybody probably felt it. Even if they didn’t know who I was, they probably felt it, for sure.”

Still, it was the first of many to come. And his peers took notice as well, once he hit the AAU circuit and started developing into a four-star recruit who ultimately joined Tom Izzo and MSU’s 2023 class – along with current teammate Jeremy Fears Jr.

Fears…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/coen-carr-became-nations-top-120929310.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-03-18 12:09:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.