Cooper Flagg is a generational talent whose play for Duke this season has been worthy of the attention and accolades he has received. In the process, though, the massive shadow his celebrity generates has blotted out the national spotlight as the moon does to the sun during a total solar eclipse.
It’s created a perception that the Blue Devils’ ascension to the top of the regular season rankings is solely the product of the player projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s NBA Draft.
Even though he’s surrounded by a roster full of five-star talent.
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That perception was challenged only 17 minutes into their ACC Tournament opener against Georgia Tech on Thursday in Charlotte when Flagg came down awkwardly after grabbing a rebound and crashed to the court holding his left ankle. He hobbled to the bench, where he was attended to by Duke’s medical staff before being helped to the locker room by a pair of teammates.
The verdict was bad. Still, it could have been much worse. X-rays taken at halftime were negative. But when Flagg limped back to the bench with what was diagnosed as a sprained ankle, it was clear that his ACC Tournament was over.
And it appeared as though the same might soon be true for the rest of his team.
Instead of making a bad situation worse, Flagg’s absence seemed to light a spark under Duke. The Blue Devils finished the half on a 9-2 run that narrowed a 12-point deficit down to just five by halftime. They carried the momentum into the second half by scoring 22 of the first 31 points to finally take control.
Fellow freshman Kon Knueppel led the charge by putting up a Flagg-like stat line of 28 points, five rebounds, eight assists and two steals while classmates Isaiah Evans and Khaman Maluach added 14 points each.
“Obviously Coop is a huge part of our team,” said Evans, who made four of his eight 3-point attempts on a day in which the rest of the team was a frigid 3-for-22. “It hurts to see him going down. But it’s next man up and we’re going to keep picking our guys up.”
There were times over the next two days in which the negative effect of Flagg’s absence was glaring. It was especially noticeable as the Blue Devils struggled to hold off North Carolina during the final 10 minutes of Friday’s semifinal win against North Carolina.
It was a situation in which Duke would have given the ball to Flagg, cleared out and let him use his elite skill set to carry it to the finish line.
But the Blue Devils found a way to survive, advance and earn a record 23rd ACC championship banner to raise to the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium.
It was a team effort that saw Knueppel earn MVP honors while Maluach and Tyrese Proctor, who hit six three-pointers in Saturday’s championship game victory against Louisville, joined him on the All-Tournament team. Lightly used reserve Patrick Ngomba was also a revelation with a strong performance in an expanded role off the bench filling in for Duke’s other injured regular, defensive stopper Maliq Brown.
“Cooper just does so much for us,” coach Jon Scheyer said after the nets were cut down for the second time in his three seasons as Mike Krzyzewski’s replacement. “Kon really has been our go-to guy without him. To see the versatility of other guys stepping up (has been great).”
As impressive as the Blue Devils were without Flagg, their only realistic hope of winning a national championship this season is if the national Player of the Year frontrunner is healthy enough to contribute as usual.
The good news is that the 6-foot-9 prodigy showed no signs of a limp as he climbed the ladder to take his turn cutting down the Spectrum Center net on Saturday. Even more encouraging is the fact that Duke has informed the NCAA selection committee that its star will be available for the Tournament.
If that’s the case, the Blue Devils could potentially be in an even stronger position to compete with Houston, St. John’s and the SEC’s best than they were before making the short trip from Durham to Charlotte a few days ago.
“For us to be tested the last three games the way that we have, I think we’re going to learn a ton from it,” Scheyer said. “It gives us extra motivation and lessons to move forward. … I think (this is) something we had to go through to really understand postseason basketball is different.
Flagg isn’t the only ACC injury concern heading into the Tournament
No one is going to confuse the importance of Clemson’s Dillon Hunter to that of Duke’s biggest star. The junior guard has started only nine games this season and he averages just 5.4 points and 1.9 assists.
But as strange it might sound, his absence from the lineup might end up being as impactful to his team as Flagg’s would be to the Blue Devils if he’s unable to play in the NCAA Tournament.
The younger brother of starting point guard Chase Hunter suffered a broken hand in the Tigers’ ACC quarterfinal victory against SMU and did not play in their semifinal loss to Louisville. Although he said he was going to do everything in his power to get back onto the court this season, coach Brad Brownell is much less optimistic.
“I don’t think it’s good,” Brownell said after the SMU game. “It’s a little bit of an emotional letdown for your team when the guy’s been playing so hard.”
Hunter’s value to Clemson goes far beyond his modest statistics. Brownell called him the team’s “ultimate glue guy” because of the energy he brings to the court, especially on the defensive end, and the versatility to play either backcourt position.
His absence was noticeable during crunch time against SMU and even more so the following night against Louisville. The Tigers’ offense stagnated with Hunter’s primary replacement, Jake Heidbreder, on the floor. And it wasn’t much better when freshman Del Jones came off the bench.
Between them, they were 1-for-7 from the floor with five turnovers and five fouls in the loss to the Cardinals.
Clemson, the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region, will play its NCAA Tournament opener against McNeese State on Thursday in Providence, R.I.
“Del Jones is a freshman. He’s a jitter bug guard who’s learning how to play,” Brownell said. “Then Jake Heidbreder is a little more of a three-point shooter. But they don’t play like Dillon. So it’s different. It’s something we’re going to have to adjust moving forward.”
The injury news for Louisville is much more positive.
After playing the ACC Tournament without sharpshooting guard Reyne Smith because of an ankle injury suffered late in the regular season, coach Pat Kelsey expects the conference’s most prolific three-point shooter to be back in the lineup for his eighth-seeded team’s NCAA opener against Creighton on Thursday in Lexington, Ky.
“Reyne is going to be ready to go for the NCAA Tournament,” Kelsey said after the Duke game. “He’s really, really close. We’re excited. Our medical staff has done an unbelievable job. He’s been working tirelessly on his rehab and his recovery. But he’s going to be ready to go.”
Smith, who came to Louisville along with Kelsey from College of Charleston, had knocked down 106 three-pointers this season, including a school-record 10 in the late-January win against SMU.
Jae’Lyn Withers’ chance for redemption
North Carolina’s inclusion as the last team into the field of 68 was by far the biggest surprise of Selection Sunday. Although the Tar Heels finished strong, won 22 games and checked in with a solid NET ranking of No. 36, their Tournament chances were considered marginal because of a 1-12 record in Quad 1 games.
But the selection committee, chaired by UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham, chose to look past that blemish, instead rewarding the Tar Heels for their strength of schedule and other metrics, including Basketball Power Index, Strength of Record and Wins Above Bubble.
It may also have given Hubert Davis’ team the benefit of the doubt because of the way its ACC semifinal against Duke ended.
UNC outscored the nation’s top-ranked team by 18 in the second half to rally within a single point with 4.1 seconds remaining. But Ven-Allen Lubin’s apparent tying free throw was nullified when teammate Jae’Lyn Withers stepped into the lane too soon and was called for a violation.
“I guess you could say that I mistimed the shot to secure the rebound in case he did miss,” said Withers, who broke down in tears after the final buzzer sounded, feeling as though he had let his team down.
To his credit, the graduate forward didn’t hide from his mistake. He met the media outside the Tar Heels’ locker room and answered every question, with his coach standing arm-in-arm with him as a show of support.
“The emotions that followed were just the sense of disbelief, initially,” he said. “Following that, of course I’m going to be upset. But the game was over.”
Davis defended Withers by saying that UNC would never be in a position to earn an at-large bid had it not been for the 6-9 forward’s late-season surge. The surprise NCAA opportunity, which begins at the First Four in Dayton against San Diego State on Tuesday, gives Withers a chance to put the disappointment behind him and finish his career on a positive note.
Along with everyone else on the team.
“This is not individuals,” Davis said. “This is the University of North Carolina basketball team. So when we win, we win together. When we lose, we lose together.”
