Arizona Wildcats Star Has Major Praise for Duke Blue Devils Superstar Cooper Flagg
One of the biggest non-conference games of the 2024-25 men’s college basketball season was played on Friday night when the Duke Blue Devils traveled to take on the Arizona Wildcats.
It was the completion of a home-and-home series that began last year when Tommy Llyod’s group went to Cameron Indoor Stadium and pulled off a 78-73 upset.
This time around, the favor was returned.
Arizona was unable to get into much of a rhythm, as Duke took them out of their game early.
A team that relies on pace and crashing the offensive glass found little success in either area, scoring only six fast break points and pulling down six offensive rebounds.
With the tempo better suited for the Blue Devils, they were able to exact some revenge, winning 69-55.
The star of the show in front of more than 14,000 fans was standout freshman, Cooper Flagg. The potential No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft showed exactly why he is such a highly regarded prospect.
Despite the intense atmosphere, he remained stoic and poised throughout the night. He scored a game-high 24 points, stuffing the stat sheet with six rebounds, three assists, one steal and two blocks.
It was a nice bounce-back performance after some late-game miscues against the Kentucky Wildcats last week which led to his team’s first loss of the season.
Arizona just didn’t have any answers for him.
After the game, Wildcats guard Jaden Bradley spoke about what Flagg brings to the floor and heaped praise on the talented first-year player.
“He is tall, athletic, and he can finish over a lot of bodies," Bradley said, via Myron Medcalf of ESPN. "He's just super athletic. I feel like we did a good job of containing him in the first half. I think we just went away from the game plan and then didn't talk, didn't communicate as a group, and he found openings in our defense. He provides mismatch problems for them. We get a smaller guard on him, he can take us inside and use his strength, his height advantage. We get a bigger guy on him, he can play quick, play fast and be able to shoot over the top or get by him."
That is part of what makes him such a tantalizing prospect.
He is capable of beating teams in so many ways offensively, making it is a real challenge to slow him down.
Some of Flagg’s performance was certainly self-inflicted, as Arizona wasn’t operating at its highest level at points on the defensive end.
But if they are not locked in, teams as talented as Duke are going to take full advantage.
Bradley scored a Wildcats-high 18 points, but it was not enough to keep pace with Flagg.
He was one of only two Arizona players, along with KJ Lewis, who had 12 points to score in double figures.
