Who doubts Cooper Flagg now? Freshman star Duke shows growth in win over No. 2 Auburn

Who doubts Cooper Flagg now? Freshman star Duke shows growth in win over No. 2 Auburn

DURHAM, N.C. — The blood stains on Cooper Flagg’s right undershirt sleeve said it all.

Duke only had four turnovers as a team on Wednesday night.

“Really?” Flagg asked about the statistics. “The whole game?”

The whole game.

“Wow,” the 17-year-old superstar replied, a smile breaking out from beneath his blonde, sweat-drenched bangs. “That means… That shows growth.”

It does. And really, that’s the overarching takeaway from No. 9 Duke’s 84-78 win over No. 2 Auburn: that Jon Scheyer’s young, freshman-laden team actually learned from its mistakes late in the games against Kentucky and Kansas. That’s the whole reason Scheyer built his non-conference schedule like that, right? Full of booby traps against other national championship teams?

Scheyer didn’t randomly schedule all of Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas and Auburn. Ha! No. He did it because, in college basketball’s most experienced era, Scheyer knew his squad – which has three freshmen in the starting lineup and three more on the bench – would need training to avoid postseason failure. Rather than waiting until it’s time to really test yourself, it’s better to take your symptoms early and improve them.

Of course, that noises way. But when Flagg — Duke’s newest freshman sensation and projected No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft — commits two turnovers in the final minute against Kentucky in a eminently winnable game with the score tied, attitudes toward Flagg come to an end short. Same deal vs. Kansas; Flagg had another crucial win down the stretch, as did fellow freshman (and projected lottery pick) Kon Knueppel.

Not that Flagg hasn’t already shouldered the burden of college basketball’s biggest spotlight.

“Since those two games, it hurts in the back of my mind and burns every time I think about it,” Flagg said. “I wish I could just get these possessions back.”

But the next best thing?

They rose, giving up 22 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks – with no turnovers, for the first time all season – against a top-10 defense, according to KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings.

Voila: Now you understand Flagg, smiling as he sits in a folding chair in front of his pearl-white Duke locker.

“I always felt like Cooper was a unique guy. He has to experience something to get used to it,” said Scheyer. “In this short time frame – it’s been a month – it’s great to see the growth in key moments and making shots against senior defenders.”

Scheyer has a point, but even that feels like he’s understating it. Whether because of the hype he generated coming out of high school, or the college he chose, or any other reason, the doubts about Flagg’s ability to lead a team had naturally mutated, especially after the late game turnovers on national television. Of course, Scheyer always believed Flagg could. (Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let go of several former four- and five-star recruits this summer, preferring the adjustment to Flagg over continuity.) That was also true for many in the college basketball world who actually saw him play once or twice. But delivering for a grassroots team, or even a top-tier high school team, isn’t the same as delivering for Duke, in a battle against the best and worst college basketball players there is to offer.

On Wednesday, Flagg checked that box, too. Clearly.

What will haters say now?

“It was one of his better games tonight,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said, still scanning a box score. “There was no turnover, so we didn’t bother him enough.”

That means something from Pearl, whose Tigers had already beaten three top-12 teams in the first month of the season. Auburn knows good teams, good players. And on Wednesday, the two met head-on at Duke and Flagg.

It wasn’t just Flagg’s final stat, as impressive as that was. It was Auburn that jumped out to a 13-2 lead – the kind it used to beat Memphis in the Maui Invitational title game – while looking every bit the attacker, blocking Duke’s blow straight to the jaw before he got up from the mat again. The best defense in the country — the kind that Scheyer came to love in his first season as head coach and that he prioritized by not signing a rotation player under 6-foot-10 — then got up to speed and held the No. 1 offense in the country to eight missed throws in the next nine attempts and a completely scoreless stretch of three minutes. Suddenly, Duke had gone on a 13-3 run, revitalizing a game that looked like it could have gone sideways in the opening minutes.

Scheyer’s message in his first break to breathe some life back into his team:

“We will find it It” he said, “someday.”

And Duke did — both in that game and more broadly in its season.

Of course, Flagg didn’t get the Blue Devils out of the crisis alone. Five-star guard Isaiah Evans — yes, another one — came off the bench for his breakout performance: an 18-point masterpiece off six 3s, all in the first half. Evans played exactly zero seconds against Kentucky and Kansas, but according to Scheyer, he was standing in the shadows and eventually unleashed his flamethrower on the unsuspecting Tigers.

Duke’s 3-point shooting is hardly a weakness, as he made 36.1 percent of his three-pointers on Wednesday. But it’s also an area that every coach would like to strengthen. Evans brought that, adding a previously unknown ingredient to the Blue Devils’ recipe for success. It’s unfair to expect Evans to repeat his first-half performance every night, but when he knocks down a three-pointer or two (or occasionally more)? Then it only becomes more difficult for opponents to react to Flagg, whose shooting – both from the 3 (23.3 percent) and from the free throw line (69.6 percent) – was the only thing he did other than turnovers had to fight with.

“That’s exactly the type of team we have,” Flagg said. “There are so many talented people who can just step up and achieve great success.”

The list goes on, although Flagg and Evans were the headliners on Wednesday. Backup center Maliq Brown – who Scheyer said has “the best hands I’ve ever coached” – was instrumental in drafting Auburn’s All-American center Johni Broome, the first National Player of the Year candidate, to brake. Brown’s ability to switch one through five blew up Auburn’s flex offense and helped Broome hit 2-for-9 shooting in the first half.

Junior Tyrese Proctor hit shot after shot, none more than a logo 3-pointer — as the shot clock expired — that gave Duke a five-point lead with 4:30 left. Veteran guard Sion James, making his first start of the season, contributed five game-winning rebounds and set the physical tone in what he later described as a “man’s game.” And Caleb Foster, whose starting spot was filled by James, provided much-needed impact off the bench, testing Auburn’s defense with 11 points, his second-most points of the season.

Divide, meet sum.

“We have enough talent,” Flagg added, “to compete with anyone in the country.”

Duke finally proved that against Auburn. And Flagg has proven, if he hasn’t already, that he can be the centerpiece of a team with Final Four aspirations. You can’t blame him for being inaccessible anymore. Once, remember? And while Flagg won’t be perfect from here on out, we can bet he’ll produce more results like Wednesday than he did against Kentucky.

Actually focusing on growth.

If Duke has gotten this far in a month, how high can it climb by March?

(Photo of Auburn’s Johni Broome and Duke’s Cooper Flagg: Lance King/Getty Images)

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