The college basketball world awaits the status of Duke basketball superstar freshman Cooper Flagg as the NCAA Tournament is set to begin this week but the team isn’t too concerned about his availability.
Flagg suffered a sprained ankle during the first half of the Blue Devils victory over Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals and was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament as missed Duke’s victories over North Carolina in the semifinals and Louisville in the championship.
Expectations have been that Flagg would be ready for the NCAA Tournament and Jon Scheyer provided further details about the ACC Player of the Year on ESPN after the Blue Devils were awarded a No. 1 seed in the East Region on Sunday evening.
“From my perspective, it’s full steam ahead,” Scheyer said. “I want to get Coop back as quickly as we can, and he wants to do the same.”
The Duke head coach said that he hopes Flagg can do on-court basketball activities as early as Monday before progressing to a full practice by the end of the week.
“Our goal is for Friday,” Jon Scheyer said about a return date for Cooper Flagg. “No question about it. I know that’s his goal as well.”
Duke men's basketball head coach Jon Scheyer says it’s “full steam ahead” for Cooper Flagg and the goal is to have him play in the tournament on Friday 💪 pic.twitter.com/vIRGFzljRy
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 17, 2025
Duke will play the winner of the First Four matchup between American and Mount St. Mary’s on Friday afternoon (2:45 p.m. ET, CBS) in Raleigh.
Its last two ACC Tournament games were the first time it had to play without the National Player of the Year candidate this season.
“We are just going to progress him the right way and still be smart about not doing too much in the beginning of the week.”
Cooper Flagg averaged 18.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.3 steals per game on 48.8-percent shooting from the floor this season.
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