Duke coach Jon Scheyer mentioned he’ll always remember the day Brian Scalabrine launched him to eventual No. 1 general choose Cooper Flagg. Figuring out the famous person prospect from Maine, convincing him to play his school basketball at Duke and using his skills en path to the Remaining 4 formed a lot of Scheyer’s upward trajectory as one of many high coaches within the sport early in his Blue Devils tenure. And it began with a textual content from Scalabrine.
Scalabrine, an 11-year NBA veteran and now a broadcast analyst for the Boston Celtics, caught wind of Flagg’s talents throughout his rise as a budding highschool standout. He began spreading the phrase and gave Scheyer a heads up.
“I advised [Scalabrine] he gave me a very powerful textual content of my life,” Scheyer mentioned on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “After which we spoke on the cellphone. We’re lucky to get these calls a very good quantity a few child and this and that. There’s part of you that is like, ‘Alright, how good is that this child from Maine actually? Like, come on.’ … And you then see him play, and it is like, ‘Alright, I do know precisely what Scal was speaking about.'”
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Earlier than the spring of 2022, solely smaller faculties had prolonged scholarship provides to Flagg. A few energy packages entered the combination that April, and Duke provided Flagg on Might 15. His recruitment blew up, and greater than a yr later, he narrowed his determination right down to UConn and Duke and took visits to every program. Flagg dedicated to Scheyer’s Blue Devils in October 2023, reclassified to the 2024 cycle and arrived at Duke because the unquestioned No. 1 participant within the recruiting class.
Flagg landed at Duke with monumental expectations, and he maybe even exceeded them in a outstanding freshman season. The consensus first-team All-American gained quite a few Nationwide Participant of the 12 months awards and led the Blue Devils on their deepest NCAA Event run of the Scheyer period. He averaged 19.2 factors, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals per recreation and led Duke in every of these classes.
That he paced the staff within the 5 main statistics was all of the extra spectacular contemplating Duke produced a trio of top-10 picks in Wednesday’s first spherical of the 2025 NBA Draft.
“I believe the magic with Coop, although,” Scheyer mentioned, “is being round him daily, the place you really respect how a lot he impacts profitable, how a lot he makes you higher. That, for me, has been a pleasure. It has been an honor to be round him daily this yr.”
Flagg is now Dallas-bound after the Mavericks adopted by way of with the apparent plan to pick the Duke product at No. 1 general.