Cooper Carlson Cooper Carlson 6'1" | PG Minneapolis Washburn | 2025 State MN – The six-foot-one-inch Carlson is a 2025 guard that can play with or without the ball. Carlson does well use ball screens to dup defenders and manipulate lanes for scoring chances. Smart player off the ball cutting and giving his teammates an easy target for scoring chances going to the rim. Since he drives hard and often that opens up the perimeter for Carlson to get good looks from the perimeter.

I couldn’t find any stats from the game, but Cooper put in a huge performance on Tuesday night to lead Washburn past #5 ranked Park Center. He started off the game beating his man with a backdoor cut for an easy lay-up, and from there was finding ways to score out on the perimeter, in transition, or off the drive. Every dribble Cooper takes seems to be with a purpose, and he does a great job of moving without the ball to open up scoring opportunities. Showed good instincts defensively to double in the post and force mistakes out of opposing players.

Cooper plays with the type of pace that make things look effortless at times. He’ll just lull a defender to sleep out on the perimeter, and as soon as a gap appears he explodes to the rim and can get there off just one or two dribbles. Good body control to finish in traffic at a high percentage. There aren’t many ways that Cooper doesn’t score the ball, and what’s impressive is the efficiency he does it in. Looks set for a big senior season in the Minneapolis City Conference.

Cooper turned in a solid performance in the game I saw, being able to impact the game in many positive ways. He is a knockdown shooter from the perimeter, being able to work without the ball to score, as he also had a couple layups off of backdoor cuts as well. He was effective getting to his mid-range pull-up, connecting on some really tough looks over defenders. Carlson was running in transition, which resulted in a couple scores too.

I’ve watched Cooper at three different events this spring, and each time he’s been arguably the most productive player on the floor. He won’t be the biggest or most explosive player on the floor, but he’s almost always one of the smartest. He just knows how to read the defense, and get high percentage shots without having to dribble much. Cooper excels at using shot-fakes and getting to the rim off one or two dribbles, and he’s also really good moving off the ball to get open looks. Despite the tough loss to Northstar Titans , Cooper was once again very productive for Minnesota Heat Academic.