Duke gives major Cooper Flagg injury update ahead of March Madness opener
RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke on Thursday declared its freshman star Cooper Flagg ready to return to play when the no. 1 seeded Blue Devils begin the NCAA Tournament with Friday’s 2:50 p.m. first-round game against No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s at the Lenovo Center.
The school confirmed that Flagg carries no injury designation and will be active for the game, marking his return to the lineup after missing the final two games of the ACC Tournament with a sprained ankle.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Flagg said Thursday. “I’m really confident about going 100 percent [Friday]. I had an MRI, X-Ray, both of those looked really good. So, from then it was just moving on, pain-tolerance type of things, just getting the recovery and treatment that I needed.
“From the start of the week, it was kind of like a build-up of jumping back into practice, getting back to a hundred percent, doing some individual things with some of the coaches on the side. Then I was back at full practice [Wednesday].’’
Flagg suffered the injury late in the first half of Duke’s win against Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on March 13. He was ruled out for the semifinals and then the rest of the conference tournament, which the Blue Devils won win with back-to-back victories against North Carolina and Louisville.
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Duke coach Jon Scheyer said Flagg returning was “about him being able to move properly.’’
“He wasn’t going to play if he was compensating,’’ Scheyer said Thursday. “Look, no matter what (with) an ankle sprain … to say he’s 100-percent tomorrow, he has to work through that a little bit still. But he’s not compensating.
“He looked really good [Wednesday],’’ Scheyer said of practice. “We built him up slowly and really progressed him the right way, but he’s ready to go. In his mind, he was ready last weekend, but he wasn’t. But he’s been itching to get out there.’’
Scheyer went on to say the time off “helped’’ Flagg’s “explosiveness’’ and it helped the team.
“Sometimes injuries are bad luck, (but) it’s really an opportunity is what it is,’’ Scheyer said. “I thought that presented an amazing opportunity for our team to show our toughness in a critical moment. With all that said, we all know we need them and we’re a lot better with them.
“But for our other guys to step up in close games to make big-time winning plays, I think that just gave us even more confidence with what we can do getting him back healthy and ready to go at the same time.’’
Duke guard Kon Knueppel said Flagg’s absence “gave some guys some opportunities, but also helped us unlock some things offensively and defensively that might work in the future. Without ‘Coop,’ we had to get a lot more off-ball movement and going to get guys open. I think a lot of that helped us offensively and could make us more dangerous going forward.’’
Fellow guard Tyrese Proctor said not having Flagg “hurt our team, but it was also a good experience,’’ adding, “We’ve sort of played without a couple guys the whole year, and I think it’s just good to have that in your back pocket. I thought we adapted really well.’
Flagg, a consensus All-American, the ACC Player of the Year, the favorite to win Player of the Year and the presumptive No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, leads Duke in points (18.9 PPG), rebounds (7.5 RPG), assists (4.1 APG), steals (1.5 SPG) and blocks (1.3 BPG).
“I think that was really good for us to go through and kind of have that experience,’’ Flagg said of him missing time. “Obviously, I hated every second of not being out on the court, but these guys made it really easy for me to kind of sit back and watch them execute, watch them go out there and dominate the other team. So, they definitely made it easy for me.’’
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