As the Blue Devils’ season comes to an end, the Blue Zone takes a final look at every player’s performance this year. First up is star freshman Cooper Flagg:
Cooper Flagg
Year: Freshman
Height: 6-foot-9
Position: Guard/forward
This year’s stat line: 19.2 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.4 BPG
Season breakdown: In his first — and likely only — season in Durham, Cooper Flagg set the standard for excellence by a freshman in NCAA basketball. As one of the most hyped prospects in recent memory, Flagg started off the season hot and never looked back. He scored 18 points in his college debut against Maine Nov. 4, then dropped 26 to go along with 11 rebounds in a close loss to Kentucky a week later. The Blue Devils’ first big win of the season came against Arizona, where Flagg scored 24 points and added three blocks in a 14-point win.
However, Duke took its second loss of the season four days later against Kansas. While Flagg kept the Blue Devils in the game with 11 second-half points, they ultimately could not overcome five turnovers from the freshman, including one with 48 seconds remaining on a potential go-ahead possession.
“The thing about him that you love is he’s unselfish, so he’s always trying to make the right play,” head coach Jon Scheyer said of Flagg after the loss to Kansas. “I just trust his competitiveness and his spirit and his intuition during a game to know what it takes to win. And he put us in that position.”
That would be Duke’s last loss for nearly two and a half months, as Flagg powered an offense that became one of the most dominant in Duke history. He notched his third double-double of the season with a home win against Auburn and earned his fourth in a road win against Louisville. Flagg scored 24 points in back-to-back games against Virginia Tech and SMU, then delivered a season highlight with a poster dunk in a dominant win against Pittsburgh.
“That’s the best in-game dunk I’ve ever seen,” teammate Tyrese Proctor said after the game. “But it might be one of the best dunks, period, that I’ve seen in a minute.”
The very next game against Notre Dame, Flagg somehow outdid himself. In a sui generis display of scoring brilliance, he scored 42 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field and 16-of-17 shooting from the charity stripe, adding six rebounds and seven assists for good measure. That mark shattered the previous Duke freshman scoring record of 35, and it was the first 40-point game by a Blue Devil since JJ Redick in 2006.
“Obviously Cooper had an all-time special performance,” Scheyer said after the game. “The stats speak for themselves. Anytime we needed a basket, he came through and he just willed us."
Flagg kept cruising, which included a versatile performance — 21 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks — for his first rivalry game against North Carolina. The Blue Devils finished with a 19-1 record in ACC play, with the lone blemish coming in a close Feb. 8 road loss to Clemson. Fourteen of the last 17 Duke points came from Flagg, who dealt with an illness in the contest, yet the everlasting image from that loss was the freshman slipping on the hardwood on Duke’s last meaningful possession.
“There’s so much that we can learn from every game, but there’s that added motivation of knowing that we didn’t come away with the win,” Flagg said after the game.
Following a decisive road victory against North Carolina where Flagg overcame three first-half fouls to post a season-high four blocks, the ACC tournament began in Greensboro, N.C., with Duke as the No. 1-seed. In the quarterfinal round, Duke’s first half went from bad to worse as Flagg twisted his ankle awkwardly while coming down for a rebound. As every Blue Devil fan held their breath, the freshman was diagnosed with an ankle sprain and sat out the rest of the tournament, which Duke was still able to win without him.
Fortunately for the Blue Devils, their wunderkind looked no worse for wear in a first-round NCAA Tournament victory against Mount St. Mary’s, with a nice two-handed dunk against Mountaineers to power a 44-point victory. In the next round against Baylor, Flagg was even better, scoring 18 points to go along with nine rebounds and six assists in a blowout win.
The Sweet 16 matchup against Arizona was a much tougher challenge for Duke thanks to incredible shot-making from longtime Blue Devil foe Caleb Love. As good as Love was, though, Flagg was even better. He scored 30 points and tied his season-high with seven assists, and his clutch free-throw making alongside freshman Kon Knueppel helped Duke to resist a ferocious Wildcats comeback.
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“Me and Cooper think the game very similarly, and we’ve been taught very similar ways to play basketball,” Knueppel said after the game. “So it feels very natural playing with him, you always know what he’s gonna do.”
In the Blue Devils’ final win of the season against Alabama in the Elite Eight, Flagg had a ho-hum performance by his standards, but still contributed 16 points and nine rebounds alongside fantastic defense to hold the best offense in the country to just 65 points. The next game, a Final Four matchup against Houston, ended in absolute heartbreak for Duke, but Flagg did all he could to propel the Blue Devils for the majority of the contest. He finished the game with 27 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and three blocks, notching a spot on the All-NCAA Tournament team despite not playing in the championship game.
“It’s an incredible season, incredible people, incredible relationships that I’m gonna have for the rest of my life,” Flagg said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but it’s still an incredible year.”
Read more about Flagg’s season:
- Column: Cooper Flagg is not the next Zion Williamson — expect a different type of impact
- vs. Kentucky: 26 points, 11 rebounds
- Column: How has Cooper Flagg performed offensively through 13 games, according to advanced statistics?
- ‘A dream come true’: Flagg plants himself in record books in Duke's win against Notre Dame
- ‘A special performance’: In Duke men’s basketball win against Auburn, each Blue Devil played to their strengths
- vs. Boston College: 28 points
- vs. North Carolina: 21 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists
- vs. Cal: 27 points
- vs. Wake Forest: 28 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists
- Cooper Flagg and Toby Fournier are two of Duke's best freshmen ever. How have they grown throughout the season?
- Flagg wins AP player of the year, Wooden Award
- vs. Arizona: 30 points, 7 assists
- vs. Houston: 27 points, 7 rebounds