The Florida State Seminoles took on Murray State on Saturday with heavy hearts. Shortly after their opening-round win against Vermont, injured senior forward Phil Cofer learned that his father, Mike, had died after a battle with an undisclosed illness.
Mike Cofer, who was 58, played 10 seasons as a linebacker in the NFL, and Phil elected to stay with the team for the second-round game against Murray State.
That was where the Seminoles’ Terance Mann stood by his grieving teammate. Mann was asked after the win about how personally he took a matchup with projected No. 2 pick Ja Morant.
In answering the question, Mann paid tribute to Mike Cofer.
Mann said:
“I wouldn’t call it a personal matchup or anything. I just brought the fight. What I did the night before was Google and YouTube Mike Cofer, my teammate’s father who passed and just saw how hard he played, how much fight he gave on the field, and I just wanted to bring that with me. And I feel like that’s what I did today. I played my heart out for that.”
Mann scored 18 points on 7 of 11 shooting while holding Morant to 3 of 15 shooting on 2-point field goals.
Cofer took to Twitter on Sunday to thank everyone for the outpouring of support and well wishes.
