The individual accolades haven’t stopped piling up for Cooper Flagg.
But he keeps showing that he’s more concerned about team wins.
The Duke University freshman won the Atlantic Coast Conference player and rookie of the year awards earlier in March, and added two more major pieces of hardware to the trophy case this week.
He became just the fourth player in college basketball history to win both the Oscar Robertson Trophy and Wayman Tisdale Award during the same season.
And he responded to that individual recognition with an individual performance for the record books, leading the Blue Devils through the Sweet 16 with 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three blocks against Arizona on Thursday night.
He proved again how he can change a game for the Blue Devils while putting together another impressive stat line. And then he proved that he’s not too concerned with the individual accomplishments.
In a press conference after Thursday night’s game, a reporter asked Flagg how he achieved his dominant performance against Arizona. And Flagg quickly pivoted to crediting his team and Duke head coach Jon Scheyer.
“I think just playing with really good energy, trusting our game plan, trusting my teammates,” Flagg responded. “They put me in some really good spots tonight. Coach, as well, just put me in some really good spots.”
The most pivotal spot may have been at the very end of the first half, when Flagg dribbled the length of the court in a couple of seconds and hit a deep 3-pointer as time expired. The momentum that play gave Duke after a tight first half was massive, but Flagg’s description of his role in it was almost dismissive.
Flagg instead highlighted the “great rebound” by teammate Mason Gillis to get that last-second sequence started.
“Just a huge rebound by him at the end of the half to close it out. He hit me on the run. Just went up and made a shot,” Flagg said, as if his own part in the critical play was an afterthought.
That team-centered approach tracks with what several of Flagg’s longtime coaches in Maine have told the Bangor Daily News in recent weeks: The individual recognitions are nice, but Flagg is focused on team wins.
Andy Bedard coached Flagg in club basketball from third grade through his junior year of high school. Matt MacKenzie is Flagg’s longtime player development coach. Both have played critical roles in Flagg’s basketball journey. And they both have stressed that Flagg is dialed in on winning games rather than winning awards.
“There’s no question he would trade all of them in for a national championship with his teammates at Duke, and that’s just fact,” Bedard said this week about all the individual accolades.
MacKenzie had similar input after Flagg was named ACC player and rookie of the year, along with earning a spot on the conference all-defensive team.
“It’s great to see him be recognized. I still think that there is more to come in terms of individual accolades he’s going to receive from his efforts this year,” MacKenzie said earlier in March, correctly forecasting that additional awards would be in store for Flagg.
The freshman phenom also remains the odds-on favorite to win the John R. Wooden Award, which is given to the top player in college basketball.
“But in talking to Cooper, while those things are great, he’s so focused on the team’s success and he’s really looking forward to the postseason and hopefully being able to lead Duke far into the tournament, and ultimately to a national championship,” MacKenzie said before the start of March Madness.
MacKenzie emphasized at the time that the recognitions are well-earned.
“But this is just the appetizer, and he needs to stay hungry for the main course,” MacKenzie said, recounting something that he and Flagg discussed after those top ACC honors. “And that’s going to be hopefully a run at the Final Four.”
A few weeks later, Flagg and the Blue Devils now have a chance to punch their Final Four ticket on Saturday night against the Alabama Crimson Tide. The winner of that 8:49 p.m. Elite Eight game in Newark, New Jersey, will head to the Final Four next week in San Antonio, Texas.
