Team TriStar!
Okay, one more article before we dive into the football previews. I want to give a big shoutout to TOC community member MSU98 for the contents of this article. He was in attendance for the final night of the 2025 Moneyball Pro-Am, and the following is his account of the action.
The semifinal matchup pitted 3-seed Faygo against 5-seeded Snipes, who got to this round via a double-overtime upset of Coen Carr’s Motorcars team on Tuesday. The MSU reps on Faygo were Divine Ugochukwu and Jaxson Kohler, facing off against Trey Fort and Jordan Scott on the other side. The first half was a duel between Kohler and Fort – most of Kohler’s points came on offensive putbacks, whereas Fort was hitting tough 3-pointers (including an and-one) and slicing through traffic for some pretty floaters and a couple of dunks. Kohler got into trouble whenever he held the ball for more than a couple of seconds, as the smaller Snipes sent double-triple teams his way. Ugochukwu ran the break well but demonstrated why he shot 17.6% from deep with Florida last year. (He did hit a couple of nice ones in the second half.) It was a close game at halftime, with Kohler leading all scorers with 22 and Fort right behind with 20.
After the break, Snipes started to pull away, eventually building an 11-point lead. Faygo seemed on the verge of getting run out of the gym, when LCC player Devan Wilson stepped up to take control of the game. He started picking up Fort full-court and chest-bumped his way to a few quick fouls, but also visibly got into Fort’s head. Fort couldn’t get open for his shot anymore, started turning the ball over, and responded to a some of Wilson’s bumps with a couple of shoves that would probably have drawn offensive fouls in Big Ten play. Snipes’ offense fell apart, and Faygo got out on the fast break, eventually resulting in a 95-82 win. Kohler led the way with 38 points, but it was clearly Wilson’s game. Fort demonstrated an ability to dominate – as he has throughout Moneyball – but the second-half stretch makes it easy to wonder how Fort will respond when he runs into tough defense in conference play.
Waiting in the championship game was 1-seed Tri-Star, led by Jeremy Fears, Jr. and Carson Cooper. Although there was an hour break between the two games, Faygo came out flat; Cooper hit a pair of threes and had a couple of dunks, and mid-way through the first half it was 33-13. Cooper finished the game with three triples, mostly from the top of the key. (He also had a fantastic alley-oop assist to Fears for a two-handed slam!) Fears was a blur up and down the court, hitting some pretty mid-range shots and finishing through contact at the rim. UM Dearborn graduate Maraion Joyner was a constant three-point threat. While Faygo went on a bit of a run to pull within 6 at halftime, Tri-Star eventually built their lead back up, winning by the final score of 80-58. Carson Cooper led the balanced attack with 21 points.
While the usual Moneyball caveats apply, it’s still been great to see Fears’ athleticism building back up, Fort flashing some serious potential, and Cooper growing more comfortable with his 3-point shot. It seems like it’s been a while since MSU had a real 3-point threat as a trailer on the fast break, a la Adreian Payne or Draymond Green – here’s hoping Cooper can keep the Moneyball confidence and knock down a few during the regular season.
Excellent writing, 98! Thanks again for your help.
I did see some video highlights from last night’s games, and there were a couple interesting bits. The first was the play of Carson Cooper. One segment showed him getting a defensive rebound, turning up court and dribbling it all the way down to the other end – making a couple moves along the way to get around a defender – and scoring a finger-roll while drawing the foul. And, as MSU98 mentioned, he was on the passing side of an alley-oop to his teammate, Jeremy Fears; that pass was right on the money and looked like it was something Cooper has done routinely.
One other thing I saw in the video was the presence of Tre Holloman. The former Spartan was in street clothes taking in the action, and a news crew caught up with him after the game. In response to a reporter’s question, Holloman said “It feels like home still.” I wonder if he is having some remorse about his decision.