Cooper Flagg (Just Turned 18) Context:
Superstar Even Among 23-, 24-Year-Olds
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
College basketball fans certainly know by now that Duke’s superstar freshman, Cooper Flagg, only recently turned 18 years old.
They probably also have heard that Flagg originally planned to be a high school senior during the 2024-25 season. Instead of seeking a date for the prom this spring, of course, he’ll try to lead Duke to the NCAA title, and he may even become the rare freshman to earn the National Player of the Year honor.
“When we step on the floor,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said recently, “we have the best player in the country.”
What many fans might not realize is that Flagg is making history during a relatively brief era when college basketball players, on average, are older than they’ve been since World War Two.
Since a 1972 NCAA rule change that allowed first-year players to be eligible, only three freshmen have become the consensus National Player of the Year: Texas forward Kevin Durant (2007), Kentucky center Anthony Davis (2012) and Duke forward Zion Williamson (2019).
When Durant won in 2007, the other consensus first-team All-Americans were a sophomore, a junior and two seniors.
When Davis won in 2012, the other consensus first-team All-Americans were two sophomores, a junior and a senior.
When Williamson won in 2019, the other consensus first-team All-Americans were a fellow freshman (Duke guard RJ Barrett), a sophomore and two juniors.
In other words, plenty of other young guys and underclassmen ranked among the very best players in college basketball in those years, too.
That’s simply not the case this season, and that broader context makes what Flagg is doing even more sensational.
Because of some enormous recent changes (e.g., the COVID-related “bonus” year of eligibility, the availability of significant Name-Image-Likeness money for top players) to the NCAA model, college basketball quickly has become an older sport, and fewer freshmen are playing prominent roles.
In the entire 18-team Atlantic Coast Conference, for example, only four first-year players have started more than two-thirds of their team’s games this season: Flagg, Duke guard Kon Knueppel, Duke center Khaman Maluach and SMU center Samet Yigitoglu (who’s almost 21 years old).
Nationally, meanwhile, the players most frequently mentioned on various “2024-25 Midseason All-American” teams and/or projected postseason All-American squads this season (listed below) illustrate the “older” theme.
In fact, two of the other best college players in America right now are six years older than Flagg, and six more are five years older than Flagg. Nobody else on the list is under 20.
Kansas center Hunter Dickinson — fifth-year senior (24 years old)
Villanova forward Eric Dixon — fifth-year senior (24)
Alabama guard Mark Sears — fifth-year senior (23)
Iowa State guard Curtis Jones — fifth-year senior (23)
Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner — fifth-year senior (23)
Saint John’s guard Kadary Richmond — fifth-year senior (23)
Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier — fifth-year senior (23)
Marquette guard Kam Jones — senior (23)
Auburn center Johni Broome — fifth-year senior (22)
Kentucky guard Lamont Butler — fifth-year senior (22)
Florida guard Walter Clayton — senior (22)
Tennessee guard Zakai Zeigler — senior (22)
West Virginia guard Javon Small — senior (22)
Purdue guard Braden Smith — junior (21)
Memphis guard PJ Haggerty — redshirt sophomore (20)
Duke forward Cooper Flagg — true freshman (recently turned 18)
Flagg’s immediate impact at the college level certainly comes as no surprise.
When Flagg committed to the Blue Devils in the fall of 2023, recently retired Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was so excited and effervescent with his praise of the young player that he inadvertently committed a minor NCAA rules violation by speaking about him publicly before national signing day.
(At the time, the video of Coach K’s comments to the Olympic Channel was taken down soon after it was posted.)
After that 2023-24 season, in which he led Montverde Academy in Florida to a 33-0 record and a prep-level national championship, Flagg (who’s originally from Maine) was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year and the Naismith High School Player of the Year.
Next month, Flagg will become only the fourth freshman ever to win the ACC Player of the Year honor, joining three former Blue Devils: Jahlil Okafor (2015), Marvin Bagley III (2018) and Williamson (2019).
Flagg, who serves as a 6-foot-9 “point forward” for Duke, also may become just the second freshman in NCAA history to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots for the season. (Ben Simmons did it in 2016 with an LSU team that ended up in the NIT; the Blue Devils are 23-3 and ranked #3 nationally.) Entering Duke’s Feb. 22 game against Illinois, only the blocked shots category (Flagg was three ahead of Maluach) was even close.
For his part, Flagg doesn’t seem concerned with such things.
“When your best player does not care about statistics, I think everybody else, how can you care about statistics?” Scheyer said. “Cooper does not care. He cares about winning, and I think that’s contagious.”
Flagg probably won’t care if his National Player of the Year honor comes largely against 23- and 24-year-old competition, either, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be recognized as yet another of his off-the-charts accomplishments.
