But none of that has dampened his resolve. Just 13 games into his college career, the 6-3 point guard has blossomed into the Raiders’ go-to guy with the game on the line.
“I’m just thinking, how can I make the best play possible for our team — whether that’s scoring or attacking to make an assist for a bucket? I’m really just trying to be calm under pressure and not let the defense know they’re getting to me,” he said.
He was unflappable in a 70-64 win over Eastern Michigan on Monday, breaking a 62-62 tie with a three-point play with 1:53 to go and then coming through with a pivotal free throw at 1:20.
Teammate TJ Burch, another player who belongs among the fearless few, finished off the scoring with four more foul shots.
Cooper leads the team and is eighth in the Horizon League in scoring with a 15.9 average. And he’s also efficient, shooting 48.8% overall and 39.4 from 3.
Asked in the post-game media session how his budding star is handling the limelight, coach Clint Sargent replied: “I would say great — because I see him every day, and really, the success hasn’t changed his habits.
“We just pointed it out to the team: He’s been exactly what you guys see since really from day one. I thought Eastern Michigan did a pretty good job of (defending) him, denying some catches, disrupting some of our action, and I thought he was still steady through that.”
The Raiders found a potent backcourt duo against EMU in pairing Burch with Cooper.
The 6-1 sophomore, making his first start, had 12 points, four steals and three assists. He leads the league and is in the top 10 nationally with 3.0 steals per game.
“TJ plays with fire and passion. And I do think he gives Coop some break from the ball-handling and allows him to conserve a little bit of energy,” Sargent said.
“They compete. They’re resilient. They get over bad things rather quickly, which, man, what a gift that is. I want all our players to have that. It’s so important to winning.”
Cooper is emerging as a strong candidate to become Wright State’s eighth league freshman of the year, joining Vitaly Potapenko in 1994-95, Kevin Melson in 1998-99, Jesse Deister in 2000-01, Cain Doliboa in 2001-02, Julius Mays in 2011-12, Loudon Love in 2017-18 and Brandon Noel in 2022-23.
But the Jeffersonville, Ind., native isn’t a finished product quite yet.
“We’re going to continue to be on him defensively, to keep leading by example like he does offensively. He made a number of big plays — but he needs to keep getting better defensively,” Sargent said.
“I think the greatest thing I can do for him is continue to make him wildly uncomfortable, and then just continue to breathe confidence in him that he can do it.”
Next game
Who: Oakland at Wright State
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 1410-AM, 101.5-FM
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