Jalen Cooper, the 2023 Sunshine State Conference Defensive Player of the Year, is bringing his lock-down skills and high-octane game to Eastern Kentucky University. Coach A.W. Hamilton dropped the news today, and you can almost hear the EKU faithful buzzing already. Cooper, a 6-foot-6 forward who tore it up at Palm Beach Atlantic before a two-year stint at Cal State Fullerton, is ready to make the ASUN his personal playground.
This guy’s no stranger to stuffing stat sheets. At Palm Beach Atlantic in 2022-23, Cooper was a one-man wrecking crew, averaging 17.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, and 1.3 steals while shooting a silky 52% from the field. He wasn’t just chucking shots either—Cooper drained 43% of his threes (21-of-49) and hit 74% at the charity stripe. The St. Petersburg, Fla., native was a menace, ranking third in the SSC in blocks, fourth in boards, 10th in field goal percentage, and 14th in both steals and scoring. Oh, and he walked away with Second Team All-Sunshine State honors to boot.
Cooper’s 2022-23 season was a highlight reel. He dropped 10 or more points in 25 of 27 games, closing the year with five straight 20-point outbursts. His masterpiece? A 33-point, 10-rebound demolition of Rollins on Feb. 25. Four days later, he went for 28 and 12 in an SSC Tournament slugfest against Florida Tech. And don’t sleep on his Jan. 25 performance against Florida Southern—26 points and a season-high 14 rebounds. Cooper also tied PBA’s single-game record with six blocks against Tampa and smashed the school’s Division II-era rebounding mark with 234 boards.
At Cal State Fullerton in 2023-24, Cooper played a smaller role, appearing in 20 games with four starts, averaging 3.4 points and 3.1 rebounds. He still had his moments, twice scoring 12 points and grabbing nine boards against Cal State Northridge on Feb. 24. He sat out the 2024-25 season but now arrives at EKU with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove.
Rewind to his roots, and Cooper’s been a baller since day one. At Anclote High School in Holiday, Fla., he was a Second Team All-Florida stud, averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists as a senior. He set school records with nine treys in a game, 70 in a season, and a 41-point explosion. Even at PBA in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, he posted 9.0 points and 3.7 rebounds in just seven games. The next year, he upped his game to 8.0 points and 4.5 boards while shooting 47%. Off the court, he earned a spot on the Athletic Director’s List in 2021 with a 3.2-3.49 GPA. Brains and buckets—Cooper’s got both.
EKU’s no slouch either. The Colonels hoisted the ASUN Championship trophy in 2024 and were in the title hunt until the final weeks this season. They’re the only ASUN squad with six or more conference wins each of the last two years, and their eight-game ASUN win streak in 2024-25 was the program’s longest since a 12-game tear across 1964-66. Under Hamilton, EKU’s shattered 103 program records, and Cooper looks like the next piece to keep that momentum rolling.
Get ready, Richmond. Jalen Cooper’s about to bring the noise.
