When the Michigan State men's basketball team needed a spark against a scrappy Bryant team in the Round of 64 of the 2025 NCAA Tournament in Cleveland, the Spartans found just that from sophomore forward Coen Carr.

While the No. 2-seeded Spartans were expected to handle the No. 15-seeded Bulldogs with relative ease, Bryant played tough, jumping out to an early 5-0 lead. The Bulldogs also held a 19-15 advantage with 9:16 in the first half, and a 24-21 lead with 5:09 remaining in the first stanza. MSU fought back, in large part due to Carr, and took a slim, five-point lead into the locker rooms at halftime at 33-28.

Eventually, Michigan State proved to be far too much for Bryant in the second half, winning by a final score of 87-62.

Carr came into the game averaging around 7.7 points per game, but scored a career-high 18 points off of the bench on Friday night against the Bulldogs, including 15 points in the first half. He also recorded a career-high nine rebounds.

"It meant a lot," Carr said when asked about setting career-highs in a big moment in an NCAA Tournament game. "We've been saying all week that this first game is the hardest, and I just made it up that I wasn't going to let my team lose today. I just tried to play as hard as I can, tried to get every rebound I can and just make the most of my opportunities out there."

Amongst his many roles for the Spartans, Carr knows one of his roles is to provide energy for his team when he comes into the game.

"I was just trying to run the floor, be aggressive," Carr said after the win over Bryant. "I know they're a tough team, so I wasn't trying to — you can't be soft when you go down there with them. So, I was trying to be aggressive and run my lane.

"They had me playing the five (position) a little bit more ... so I had to run my lane, run to the rim, so that's all I was trying to do. I just felt like I get to make those plays and my teammates feed off them every time. So, I just try to keep doing that and I feel like that's kind of my job on this team."

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo was complimentary of Bryant, as the Bulldogs brought the fight to the Spartans early. Izzo mentioned that Carr was the catalyst that got MSU going, with some help from redshirt freshman point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., freshman guard Jase Richardson, junior guard Tre Holloman and others.

"Well, the score was not indicative of the game," Izzo mentioned. "Let's be fair to them. They came out and punched us right in the mouth, hit some shots early, got some rebounds early, turned us over. I thought they did a great job. Then I thought our bigs let us down a little bit, if I'm honest with you.

"Even these two (Fears and Richardson) weren't really up to par at first, and then Coen (Carr) came in and really ignited us, and then Jeremy (Fears) started pushing the ball, and Jase (Richardson) finally looked at the basket, (took) a few shots, and Tre Holloman did, also."

While Carr was hard on himself for missing an alley-oop during the game, his goal was to hustle and create additional possessions for his team.

He did just that by pulling down a game-high six rebounds. The Spartans grabbed a season-high 21 offensive rebounds, which was the most for the program since 2018 (the 54 total rebounds were also a season-high for MSU), compared to just nine for the Bulldogs. Michigan State scored 31 second-chance points, while Bryant had just six second-chance points.

"Well, the alley-oop I missed it, I should have made an alley-oop on that one," Carr admitted. "I just tried to get second chances for my teammates, whether I'm getting a rebound, putting it back on myself or I'm getting it and passing out to open teammates. That's it. Just trying to get extra possessions for my squad."