Carson Cooper sports a new look after injury during Purdue game

Carson Cooper suffered a face injury against Purdue and now he’s sporting an interesting new look for the NCAA Tournament.

During Michigan State’s Big Ten tournament quarterfinal loss to Purdue, Carson Cooper took a nasty hit fighting for a rebound. He took an inadvertent elbow to the nose and went down hard. Play continued, but when the camera panned back to Cooper he (and the court) was covered in blood.

In true Spartan fashion, Cooper did not miss any significant time once they got the bleeding to stop. Fast forward to Wednesday during MSU’s open practice ahead of their opening NCAA Tournament game, and Cooper is sporting a new look.

Carson Cooper sporting a new mask. MSU sophomore got a bloody nose vs. Purdue but said it’s not conclusive if he broke it. Plans to explore having a corrective procedure after the season but will wear the mask – created by a 3D scan of his head – the rest of this season. pic.twitter.com/1ars1G5jx2

— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 20, 2024

Masked Carson Cooper

Personally, I love this look for Cooper. Sometimes guys look pretty ridiculous wearing a mask, but I think he can pull it off.

All joking aside, it’s a relief to hear that this isn’t a serious injury. It’s unknown at this point if his nose is broken or not, but that isn’t stopping him from being a full go for the NCAA Tournament. Broken noses, while extremely painful at the time, usually aren’t a long term injury concern, so whatever treatment he needs he should be able to get pretty quickly during the offseason.

Will masked Cooper go off in the tournament?

The NCAA tournament’s always full of ridiculous storylines you can never predict, so maybe this will be the next one. Maybe MSU will make a deep run behind the magician that will become known as The Masked Coop (trademark pending).

Cooper, and the rest of the teams, journey begins Thursday against Mississippi State, and I predict that his heroic tournament will begin with huge double-double against the Bulldogs.