Here are the things we already know Cooper Flagg can do.
After his first 11 games as a college player, he can lead Duke in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocked shots.
He can be the first Blue Devil in 40 years – and there were quite a few good ones – to collect 50 or more points, 25 or more rebounds and 10 or more assists in his first three career games, according to ESPN.
He can help anchor one of the elite defenses in the nation. Duke has allowed 47 and 46 points in its past two games. Arizona could only get to 55. Even the incendiary device that is the Auburn offense, which has hit 90 six times this season, was held to a reasonable 78.
He can produce a game of 22 points and 11 rebounds against Auburn, follow that with a 20-12 at Louisville and not have a single turnover in 66 minutes. Also, 26 points against Kentucky and 24 against Arizona. Big-name opponents don’t seem to faze him much.
Now here are things we know Cooper Flagg can’t do.
Vote. Play the lottery. Open a checking account. Get a tattoo without parental consent. Make a will. Buy fireworks or spray paint. Sit on a jury.
Not until Saturday, anyway.
Yep, the most-ballyhooed freshman in college basketball hits the big 1-8 Saturday, and not many pre-season All-Americans could ever say such a thing with nine wins already in the bag. He has accomplished so much, and all of it so far as a legal minor. That includes becoming the first 17-year-old in Ƶ history with multiple 20-point double-doubles. He did it three times.
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“Every time we go into Cameron and go down and sit in the bleachers, we think about that,” father Ralph said this week. “It’s been that way pretty much his whole career. Every time he accomplishes something, you’re kind of like, wow.”
So Duke is 9-2, thinking big thoughts about March, and Flagg has been carrying the torch even if he can’t legally operate a meat slicer in a grocery store until Saturday. Throw out the pandemic year, and Duke has never had a non-sellout at home in Flagg’s lifetime. Since he came crying into the world with his twin brother Ace, the Blue Devils have lost only four non-conference games in Cameron Indoor Stadium – they’re 134-4 to be exact – and two of those four came when the seats were empty during the COVID season. The Flagg twins were born on Dec. 21, 2006. That same day, Duke beat Gonzaga in Madison Square Garden, helped by 14 points from a freshman guard named Jon Scheyer. “The kids we recruit,” Mike Krzyzewski said after the game, “some of them are a cut above.”
How was Coach K to know that as he offered those words, a future example was a newborn in a hospital nursery up the coast in Maine? Or that the man to eventually coach the bundle of joy was, on that day, a freshman in Duke’s backcourt? Flagg was nearly 23 inches long at birth, getting a head start on the way to being the 6-foot-9 phenom who now takes the floor for the Blue Devils.
Flagg may be a little busy Saturday for cake or to go legally skydiving for the first time. Duke has a noon game at Georgia Tech. His birthday has been good for the Blue Devils. They’re 18-6 on Dec. 21 and have won 13 of their last 14. But this will be their first true road game on that date in 35 years. Doubtful the Georgia Tech crowd will sing Happy Birthday to him.
But Ralph and Kelly Flagg will when they get the chance. The parents are in for a busy Saturday themselves because they have two kids turning 18. Ace has a high school game in Greensboro, so Ralph is attending that one and Kelly will be at Georgia Tech. Then she’s taking a quick flight back and hoping to catch some of Ace’s game. The family plans to get together Saturday night.
“We’ll probably end up doing cake on Sunday,” Ralph said. Cooper might be getting the headlines right now, but Ace – who is headed to the University of Maine next season – beat him into the world back in 2006 by one minute. “He’ll be the first to tell you he’s older, smarter, better looking and stronger," Ralph said.
Some things will certainly change Saturday, not just the fact Cooper Flagg can now bet on a horse race or sue someone. “There’s probably a lot on that list he can’t do anyway because of insurance,” Ralph was saying about the new freedoms of 18. So, no skydiving for the likely future No. 1 NBA draft choice. As of this weekend, according to one survey, one 17-year-old will be left in men’s Division I basketball. Arizona State’s Jayden Quaintance is averaging 8.4 points and 8.0 rebounds for the Sun Devils and is third in the nation in blocked shots. He won’t turn 18 until next July. The two teenagers were on the same floor for Duke’s 103-47 preseason romp over the Sun Devils in October. Quaintance had 11 points, Flagg nine.
Flagg’s last game as a 17-year-old was Tuesday night’s 68-47 win over George Mason, with 24 points, nine rebounds and four assists. “I thought Cooper was really aggressive, putting pressure on the defense,” Scheyer said. “I think for many young guys, you get caught up in percentages and numbers sometimes. And for him, he was a warrior out there, with 24, nine and four I think that comes with his competitive spirit and being in attack mode. We need him that way. We have to help him be that way all the time.”
Maybe that’s something for the Blue Devils to work on when Flagg gets older. Like, say, 18.
The college basketball landscape has room for players of many ages. BYU starts a guard, Trevin Knell who is 26. When he played his first game for the Cougars, Flagg was only 12. Knell has already been married for three years, while Cooper Flagg is not even legally allowed to do that without parental permission. But he can after Saturday.
