Eric Cooper, Jr. joined the LMU Men's Basketball staff in the summer of 2024 ahead of the 2024-25 season. The 2025-26 season will be his second at LMU.
In 2024-25, Cooper helped lead LMU to two separate win streaks of five games apiece. The Lions closed out non-conference play with five wins in a row and then, for the first time since 1991, won five consecutive wins in conference play.
In November, the LMU Men's Basketball team left foreign soil as MTE Champions. The Lions followed their 2022 Jamaica Classic title with a second in-season tournament title during his tenure leading the Lions. The Lions defeated Belmont in the opening game of the tournament and then overcame a 10-point deficit with less than six minutes to play in the second half to clinch the Championship.
Following the season, Jevon Porter and Caleb Stone-Carrawell were named to the All-WCC Honorable Mention team. For the fourth consecutive, LMU men's basketball had two players selected to the West Coast Conference's All-Academic Team. Rick Issanza and Alex Merkviladze have been voted to the league's All-Academic team with Lamaj Lewis earning Honorable Mention recognition.
Cooper, Jr. played college basketball for Nevada from 2014-16 and then for current LMU Assistant Coach Lorenzo Romar in his second season at Pepperdine from 2018-2019. In his four seasons at Pepperdine and Nevada, Cooper, Jr. finished with a career total of 1,193 points. In his final two seasons of college basketball he averaged 11.6 points in 28.1 minutes and shot 39.6% on three-pointers (124-for-313), ranking 10th in Pepperdine history.
Prior to transferring to Pepperdine, Cooper, Jr. averaged 9.3 points and 2.1 rebounds as a sophomore at Nevada and helped the Wolf Pack in three-pointers made both seasons, with 56 in 2015-16 and 38 in 2014-15. Cooper, Jr. helped Nevada win the 2016 CBI postseason tournament.
Prior to college, Cooper, Jr. spent one postgraduate season at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he averaged 17.5 points and 3.4 assists in 2013-14. He graduated from St. Anthony High School, located in Long Beach, Calif., in 2013 after spending his first three years at Lutheran High School in La Verne, Calif. Cooper, Jr. averaged 22.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists as a senior and earned Cal-Hi Sports All-State Division IV second team honors and All-CIF Southern Section Division IV first team status, as well as being named MVP of the Santa Fe League He won state titles in 2010 and 2011 at Lutheran High.
Cooper Jr. played AAU ball with Belmont Shores, Branch West and California Supreme.
