Even on a quiet Tuesday night, Cooper Flagg kept making noise at the national level.
The standout freshman and his Duke teammates won’t play Houston in the Final Four until Saturday. But Flagg was already drawing attention Tuesday night when he was named one of the final five men’s players still in the running for the John R. Wooden Award.
That award, named after the legendary UCLA coach, is given to the best player in college basketball.
Flagg has been and remains the betting favorite to bring home the Wooden Award when the winner is announced at a banquet in Los Angeles on Friday, April 11.
The other four finalists for the men’s award are Johni Broome from Auburn, Walter Clayton Jr. from Florida, Mark Sears from Alabama and Braden Smith from Purdue. The women’s award finalists are Lauren Betts from UCLA, Madison Booker from Texas, Paige Bueckers from UConn, Hannah Hidalgo from Notre Dame and JuJu Watkins from USC.
Broome and Flagg have long been considered the men’s Wooden Award frontrunners. Broome’s Auburn Tigers and Clayton Jr.’s Florida Gators are in the Final Four along with Flagg’s Blue Devils. Duke earned a victory over Sears and the Alabama Crimson Tide to make it to the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.
Some of the coaches close to Flagg have emphasized how he would much rather win a national championship than win individual awards, so don’t expect him to spend his time thinking about the Wooden Award banquet ahead of Saturday’s clash with Houston. But also don’t be surprised if Flagg brings home yet another piece of hardware.
He’s already been named Atlantic Coast Conference player and rookie of the year. He’s only the fourth player ever to be named both player and freshman of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
And it’s not hard to figure out why. Flagg has achieved something not done in the ACC for 25 years by leading his team in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals. He has showcased a relentlessly complete game throughout the season, and showed up for Duke in big moments and many different ways.
And people across his home state of Maine have enjoyed Flagg’s dream-like rise to the top of college basketball.
“When you watch him play, you never expect what the end result is going to be, because he makes it look so easy,” Jean Haynes said in Bangor last Saturday night while watching Flagg and the Blue Devils advance to the Final Four.
Asked if Maine will ever see something like this again, Haynes took a wider view.
“I don’t think it’s just Maine,” Haynes said. “There aren’t a lot of Cooper Flaggs out there anywhere.”
