Like it or not, Duke’s Cooper Flagg is college basketball’s biggest story | Baxley

DURHAM — Cooper Flagg won’t be 18 years old until late December. By the time the Duke basketball freshman celebrates his next birthday, the Blue Devils will be 11 games into the 2024-25 season.

Flagg, a 17-year-old Maine native, is surrounded by a level of hype in Durham that is bringing back memories of Zion Williamson’s one-and-done experience with the Blue Devils.

Having already signed an endorsement deal with New Balance before playing his first college game, Flagg will likely be the most polarizing player in college basketball. He’s already the biggest story.

“I’ve seen a lot of different seasons, different hype, different expectations,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said Friday. “With Cooper … I don’t know if we’ve ever had a 17-year-old with as much attention around him.”

Even the Zion Williamson hype train didn’t leave the station until the Blue Devils bludgeoned Kentucky in the opening game of the 2018-19 season.

Duke injury update on Patrick Ngongba

The Cooper Flagg hype train has been rolling along since he decided to reclassify and join the Blue Devils a year earlier than expected. It picked up steam this summer when Flagg impressed NBA players in Las Vegas at training camp for Team USA’s Olympic basketball team. 

It hit another gear this week when NBA champion and Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett heaped praise on Flagg. 

From here on out, it’ll be pedal to the metal, with no brakes — and no breaks for everyone else in college basketball — over the next seven months.

NBA scouts will come out in droves to catch a glimpse, hoping their franchise is the one that will be able to #CaptureTheFlagg in the 2025 NBA Draft. Flagg is the runaway favorite to be the top pick and mediocre teams might err on the side of tanking to better their chances of landing the No. 1 selection.

“As far as hype and all that goes, that’s something that you learn to deal with,” Flagg said during the Blue Devils’ annual preseason media day.

“For me, it’s about just playing basketball.”

Flagg’s competiveness, which Scheyer says doesn’t turn on and off, is among his notable traits. That relentless attitude on the court aids the overall skill of the 6-foot-9 forward, a player capable of dominating a game without scoring 25 points.

Flagg seems to get as much joy out of snagging a rebound or swatting a shot as he does throwing down a vicious dunk, often letting out primal screams after those game-changing plays.

Williamson brought a steady stream of celebrities to Cameron Indoor Stadium, including President Barack Obama. Flagg might not bring a former president to Durham, but there won’t be a lack of stars lining up to see the show.

ESPN had the “Zion Cam,” and the network will likely experiment with having something similar for Flagg this season. The possibility of a split-screen format is sure to make fans compose calm, thoughtful social media posts.

“You haven’t seen it in awhile, that type of attention,” Duke associate head coach Chris Carrawell said of Flagg.

“For a three-minute stretch (at Team USA training camp in Las Vegas), he was the best player on the floor. At 17 years old, it wasn’t the fact that he played well, it was the fact that if you didn’t know who he was. You would’ve said, ‘Who is that guy? He plays for the Raptors, right?’

“He just looks like those (NBA) guys, physically. But it’s gone be tough. He’s big-time, so far. Long way to go, but so far it’s been big-time.”

Like it or not, it seems inevitable that Flagg will be the headliner at the center of the college basketball universe this season. Fans and haters alike will be tuning in, and the noise is only going to get louder.

All aboard.

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke basketball’s Cooper Flagg bringing back memories of Zion Williamson