The Duke basketball program has seen many elite freshmen walk through its doors over the last three years and Tyrese Proctor has been given a front seat to see what many of the young stars can do.
Proctor was in the same recruiting class as Dereck Lively, Kyle Filipowski, and Dariq Whitehead. He played as a sophomore with Jared McCain, but even he admits that Cooper Flagg was different from anyone he has ever played alongside.
“In the summer workouts he had a couple off the backboard dunks midway, and you saw he got the vibe,” Proctor explained in a taped segment on Saturday’s ESPN College Gameday.
“He was legit.”
And Flagg was just getting started as he curated a season that will win him the ACC Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and perhaps the National Player of the Year as Duke currently holds the No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll as well as the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament and a projected No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
But the Blue Devils want more from Flagg in the postseason, specifically trying to orchestrate things himself rather than being a facilitator.
“He’s always been a team first player and coach and us want him to be more selfish at times just because it’s the right thing for the team and it’s going to open up so much more for everyone else,” Proctor continued.
Cooper Flagg finished the regular season leading Duke in the five major statistical categories, averaging 19.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game.
“The cool thing about our team is, as good as Cooper is and he's what makes us go, but we have guys who can go when he's not there for us,” Sion James explained after Duke’s victory over North Carolina on Saturday when Flagg picked up three fouls in the first half.
The hype that Cooper Flagg has generated during the regular season has been massive, but he will be looking to take that next step in his college career on Thursday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, ESPN) when Duke opens the ACC Tournament against either Georgia Tech or Virginia.