RALEIGH, N.C. — Cooper Flagg, the projected top pick in this year’s NBA draft and one of the favorites to win national player of the year, will be available to play for No. 1-ranked Duke on Friday in the first round of the Men’s NCAA Tournament after spraining his ankle a week ago in the ACC quarterfinals.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Flagg said. “We have an incredible team, incredible training staff, so we’ve been working through the steps of just getting back, getting to 100 percent. I’m very confident moving forward.”
Flagg, an 18-year-old freshman averaging 18.9 points and 7.5 rebounds, seemed to be in jeopardy of missing at least some NCAA Tournament games after he jumped for a rebound early in the game against Georgia Tech last Thursday and turned his left ankle when it landed on another player’s foot.
Though the optics of the injury were not good initially, as Flagg couldn’t put weight on the foot and was taken by wheelchair to the examination room, it was apparent fairly quickly that Duke had dodged a significant injury to its best player. Flagg said his X-Rays and MRIs came back clean enough that he could progress to a return protocol this week.
“In his mind, he was ready last weekend,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “But he wasn’t.”
Though Scheyer said it would be too aggressive to say Flagg will be at 100 percent for Friday’s game against No. 16 seed Mount Saint Mary’s, the crucial part is that all the testing indicates he’s able to move properly on the left ankle without overcompensating. Flagg participated in a full contact practice on Wednesday.
“He still has to work through it a bit still, but there’s no imbalance in the way he’s moving,” Scheyer said. “He looked really good. He’s ready to go.”
The news didn’t seem as optimistic for the availability of Duke’s junior forward Maliq Brown, who injured his left shoulder in February and seemed to reaggravate it at the ACC tournament. Though Scheyer did not rule him out entirely, his language suggested that Brown, a role player averaging 17 minutes per game, will continue to be out for the foreseeable future.
Despite those injuries, Duke won the ACC tournament anyway, showcasing its versatility and depth as freshman guard Kon Knueppel and center Khaman Maluach came to the forefront in a major way.
“Sometimes injuries are bad luck, but it’s really an opportunity and that presented an amazing opportunity to show our toughness in a critical moment,” Scheyer said. “With that said, we need (Flagg) and we are a lot better with him. But it gave us more confidence in what we can do.”
Follow Dan Wolken on social media @danwolken.bsky.social
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.