Duke’s Cooper Flagg starts fast and finishes with ACC freshman scoring record
Cooper Flagg crossed the court to catch an early kickout feed and knocked down a three-pointer from the wing. Moments later, he stood alone in the left corner and confidently hit a catch-and-score for another three.
No hesitation.
And he didn’t stop until the 18-year-old accomplished something no freshman had ever done in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The 6-foot-4 Flagg scored 42 points to set a conference freshman scoring record on Saturday, helping fourth-ranked Duke beat Notre Dame 86-78. It was a performance that put the preseason Associated Press All-American alongside some prominent names in the history of the blueblood program and its longtime league home.
“I was just playing,” Flagg said as he sat behind his locker afterward, surrounded by reporters. “When I’m in the game, I don’t really know what’s going on. I just play locked up.”
Flagg had long been mentioned as a potential No. 1 overall NBA draft pick before leaving his home state of Maine for Durham. His every move on the field had been dissected all season, from the late-game losses to No. 6 Kentucky and No. 11 Kansas to his strong play in a March-worthy game that handed No. 2 Auburn their only loss.
This week provided the perfect example. His coast-to-coast dunk in transition against Pittsburgh on Tuesday was a breathtaking and eye-catching signature to an impressive win. This time he was electric from start to finish, finishing with the highest scoring performance by a Duke player at the famed Cameron Indoor Stadium home since 1976, and the most by any Blue Devils since Danny Ferry’s program-record 58 points in Miami in December 1988. .
Before Saturday, Flagg’s season high was 26 points.
“He’s himself,” said teammate Sion James. “And that’s the magic of Cooper Flagg, because he’s himself. He doesn’t force anything. He’s just a player and takes looks as they come. He saw something he liked, and 42 points later, here we are.”
Flagg made 11 of 14 shots in about 36 minutes, including 4 of 6 three-pointers, to continue his recent improved long-distance touch. He saw work as the primary ballhandler and attacked the paint, taking advantage of mismatches by committing 13 fouls and getting to the line 17 times (he made 16, a record for a Duke freshman), while Notre Dame played as team had only 16 attempts.
“It’s a big part of the game when you can get in the paint and get fouled,” Flagg said, “so I was able to get that going early and was able to kind of live in the paint tonight. ”
Flagg also had six rebounds and seven assists, including a high-low pass to 7-foot-2 teammate Khaman Maluach for an alley-oop dunk on Duke’s opening possession.
“They have the right mix of guys with them,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “If they had him and couldn’t shoot, or if they had people who needed the ball and were ball-dominant, then it probably wouldn’t work. But they did a good job of evaluating and finding the right people around him, so it makes him a very difficult match.”
Flagg called it one of his more aggressive offensive performances from the start, in part because he got those early, clean looks to quickly find a flow. As he continued, the fouls and contact kept coming — enough that Duke coach Jon Scheyer had his own rare outburst, this one of demonstrative anger.
It came after Flagg was called for an offensive foul in the first half for pushing off on a drive against Notre Dame’s Matt Allocco. When Allocco hit the ground, Scheyer practically ran from the sideline to the edge of the center circle and shouted, “No way!” and shouting that Allocco had grabbed Flagg before emphatically waving in disgust as head coach Chris Carrawell tried to lead him back to the bench.
It was only the second technical foul of Scheyer’s three-year head coaching career, though he focused on making a bigger point.
“People are going to do things to make it easier to guard him,” Scheyer said of Flagg. “And grabbing and holding will be something that is there. So it wasn’t just one play that stood alone for me. It’s just understanding that he’s getting hit.
“Again… I have a lot of respect for these three officials, the officiating leaders in our league. But I’m also going to advocate for our guys when I feel like something is not being mentioned appropriately or not being respected.”
On Saturday, Flagg had surpassed the previous ACC freshman record of 41 points set by Boston College’s Olivier Hanlan against Georgia Tech in the 2013 ACC Tournament. Only two other freshmen in league history, both from North Carolina, have reached the 40-point mark: Tyler Hansbrough (40) in February 2006 and Harrison Barnes (40) in the 2011 ACC Tournament.
Flagg reached the 40-point mark on two free throws with 25.7 seconds left as Duke clung to an 80-76 lead after squandering most of an 18-point lead. He broke the ACC record with two more free throws with 4.9 seconds left after the “Cameron Crazies” chanted his name as he walked to the line.
How does a teenage basketball prodigy celebrate history? His plans didn’t sound nearly as memorable.
“I’m probably just going to hang out with my teammates and have a chill night,” Flagg said. “There are a lot of good basketball games tonight.”