DURHAM, N.C. – Cooper Flagg came into this college season as the consensus No. 1 high school recruit, but like a lot of freshmen, he got off to a rocky start — at least by his standards. Flagg played brilliantly in November games against Kentucky and Kansas, but when he had a chance to close out the wins in the final minute of each game, he fumbled the chance away.
By any reasonable definition, by the time late December rolled around, Flagg was already not only the top freshman in the country, but arguably the top player. Through his first 12 games, he averaged 16.3 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.25 blocks. He led Duke in all five categories. Yet, Flagg was also shooting just 42.1 percent from the floor and the disappointing endings to the Kentucky and Kansas games bothered him. So when the holidays arrived and the Blue Devils had a 10-day break between games, Flagg went to work.
It began when he and his parents invited Cooper’s longtime trainer Matt MacKenzie to Durham so he could put Flagg through extended shooting sessions with Associate Head Coach Chris Carrawell and a few Duke managers. MacKenzie focused on Flagg’s footwork and other fundamentals that had been slipping. “The main point was staying balanced when he shoots the ball and freezing both hands high on his follow through,” MacKenzie told Hoops HQ. “We must have gotten in at least 400 or 500 reps where he was really just dialed in on that. Those were his two cues, finishing with balance and hands high on his follow through.”
Even more than shooting refinements, MacKenzie worked with Flagg on his mental game. “I talked to Coach [Jon] Scheyer and Coach [Chris] Carrawell,” MacKenzie said. “They thought it would be helpful just to come down there and talk to him a little bit about remembering who he is and sticking with that identity that has made him so successful for so long.”
The work continued when Flagg spent time with his parents at their home in nearby Greensboro. Flagg comes from a basketball family. His mother Kelly was a four-year player at Maine. His father Ralph played at Eastern Maine Community College. His twin brother Ace is committed to Maine and was a teammate of Cooper’s at Montverde Academy before Cooper reclassified and committed to Duke.
Cooper spent most of his time at home working on his shooting while Ralph rebounded and reinforced the points MacKenzie had made the week before. As the break was nearing its end, Flagg texted MacKenzie and said, “I have a feeling things are about to change.”
He was right. On January 11, Flagg set a Duke freshman scoring record with 42 points against Notre Dame. He shot 47.3 percent from three-point range during the month of January. Flagg entered the Feb. 1 game against North Carolina as the most watched and talked about player in college basketball and handled business like a seasoned veteran, finishing with 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in the 87-70 win.
“He’s just a savant with the game, he really is,” Scheyer said after the North Carolina win. “Cooper makes everyone around him better.”
Shortly after the game was over, Flagg spoke to Hoops HQ about the impact those holiday workouts had on what was already shaping up to be a historic season. “It was all about going back to the basics, that has been the main thing,” Flagg said. “Just staying confident, staying hungry, and pushing myself to get better every single day. I’ve just been working on all of the little things and that’s what’s brought us here.”
Flagg, a 6-foot-9 forward, continues to lead all Duke players in scoring (19.5 points), rebounds (7.7), assists (4.1) and blocks (1.3). His parents have noticed a change not just in his output, but his attitude. “He just needed that mental reset,” Kelly Flagg told Hoops HQ. “Coming home, being with family. … Cooper and I are very similar and learned early on that we don’t do well one-on-one in gym settings since we’re both so competitive and think the same way. It was good for Ralph to get time with him and echo the shooting basics from Matt and the Duke coaching staff.”
Flagg turned 18 on Dec. 21, but he carries himself like a pro. He received advice from LeBron James when James watched him dominate Nike’s Peach Jam. Flagg later went toe-to-toe with some of the best players in the NBA at the USA Basketball scrimmage in Las Vegas last summer prior to the Olympics. He is the most visible player in college basketball, but if the pressure and attention is fazing him, he has not let it show. “I understand there’s pressure but for me,” Flagg said. “It’s just about staying grounded, staying in the rhythm and just getting better every day. Once the ball gets thrown up, everything goes away and I’m able to just play. It’s all about just trusting the game plan and coming out ready.”
All of this has solidified what was widely assumed coming into the season — namely, that Flagg is a surefire bet to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. “He’s so damn good,” an NBA scout told Hoops HQ. “He’s so versatile, smart and competitive. Of course he was going to figure it out. I think it was a matter of when, not if. To see him figure it out so quickly speaks to the mental component of his game and that’s what separates him from other players.”
Flagg is far from a finished product. He knows it. His family and his close circle know it. As impressive as he has been, he has only shown a glimpse of what’s to come. “As each year has gone on, what we thought his ceiling was or could be wasn’t even what we thought was possible,” Kelly said. “We’re just so proud of him and whenever we thought we had seen it all, he does something crazy and continues to push the ceiling higher.”
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