Cooper Flagg’s first test came 100 seconds into his first NCAA Tournament game.
Tyrese Proctor stepped in front of a Mount St. Mary’s pass and headed down the court. Flagg trailed him, coming down the middle, and Proctor found him in front of the basket. The Mount’s Xavier Lipscomb challenged him, but Flagg collided with him, chest-to-chest, in midair.
The whistle blew, the ball went into the hoop and Flagg, who missed almost all of last weekend’s ACC Tournament title run for Duke with a sprained ankle, went sprawling onto the floor.
The crowd in Raleigh’s Lenovo Center held its collective breath, but Flagg let his out, clenching his fists and shouting as his teammates crowded around him to offer congratulations.
“I mean, for me, that was just a normal play,” said Flagg.
The freshman star for the Blue Devils has already declared his ankle to be pain free, and that play, early in Duke’s 93-49 dismantling of Mount St. Mary’s, seemed to be exhibit A.
Flagg finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in 22 minutes of play. His time on the floor was limited by the score—no Blue Devil logged more than 24 minutes—not his ankle.
“The biggest thing for me was him not pacing,” said coach Jon Scheyer. “I didn’t want him to pace.”
In other words, Scheyer wanted his star going full out, not trying to protect himself or ease back in. Mission accomplished.
“I knew from the second he got back in he was ready,” said Sion James. “I knew he wouldn’t come back before he was ready, and he wouldn’t be out here not being himself. From the beginning, he was being himself, right away. It’s not like he was being hesitant. He was getting downhill early.”
Scheyer said he didn’t give any thought to letting Flagg sit out an opening game where Duke was the prohibitive favorite.
“For me—and I’ve been on many sides of this in my playing days, coaching days—you don’t take any game for granted,” he said. “I think it’s very easy to say, yeah, you should just rest. Well, you want to have your best team, and you’re not promised the next game.”
Scheyer was also concerned about too much time off. After missing two and a half games in the ACC Tournament, Flagg did work on the underwater treadmill to try to keep his conditioning. “Just making sure his shape was still there,” Scheyer said. “Frankly, it’s only been eight days. So I think for him it’s not like he’s lost a ton of shape.”
Still, working out in the pool isn’t the same as game conditioning.
“I think just as important was the fact of him playing,” Scheyer said. “I didn’t think he looked like it, but you have some natural rust. Just the game experience I think is really important to understand what the tournament is like. So for me, there wasn’t a question (of him playing). I know for him there wasn’t a question. But at the same time, like we weren’t going to risk anything either. When we knew he was ready, he was going to go.”
Duke advances to Sunday’s second round, which will be against 9-seed Baylor and former two-time Duke captain Jeremy Roach.
“We’re not going to make this about that,” Scheyer said. “You’re playing the NCAA Tournament. This should be about Duke and Baylor.”
