Cooper Flagg Is So Good You Might Even Root for Duke

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Duke University’s men’s basketball success over the years—the national championships, the Final Four appearances, all the NBA players who’ve honed their craft down in Durham—has created a blue-chip brand. It’s also spawned that most uniquely American sports specimen: the Dukie everyone loves to hate.

Christian Laettner, the 6-ft. 11-in. sharpshooter with the matinee hair and icy stare, won back-to-back March Madness titles with Duke in 1991 and 1992, but once stomped his foot on a Kentucky player during an Elite Eight game, and was the subject of a documentary called, fittingly, I Hate Christian Laettner. Shooting guard Grayson Allen, now a member of the Phoenix Suns, gained a reputation for tripping people; big man Kyle Filipowski, a rookie for the Utah Jazz, caught flak for the same last season, when he tripped a player from Duke archrival North Carolina, though he said the incident was unintentional. JJ Reddick, the current head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, got under the skin of opponents and fans alike as a Duke All-American in the mid-aughts. Nineties point guard Steve Wojciechowski’s signature move was slapping the floor when getting ready to guard an opponent, to show the world he was rarin’ to go.

But as the NCAA men’s tournament tips off on March 18 with the “First Four” play-in games, and the round-of-64 bracket gets going on March 20, basketball fans will have a new Duke star to watch–one they might actually like.

Read More: 2024 Athlete of the Year: Caitlin Clark

Hoping to lead the powerhouse to its first national title in a decade is freshman Cooper Flagg, the 18-year-old Duke phenom who’s the most exciting do-it-all player to compete in college basketball since Kevin Durant spent his freshman year at Texas nearly two decades ago. And unlike some of his predecessors, Flagg, the likely national college player of the year who’s also the consensus top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft—in the very likely case he decides to go pro—seems…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/cooper-flagg-good-might-even-154457175.html

Author : Time

Publish date : 2025-03-11 16:40:00

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