CBS Sports released its Preseason All-American teams for the 2024-25 college basketball season on Monday, and one freshman made the First Team. Would anybody like to guess who it was?
Cooper Flagg, the top Class of 2024 recruit, joined Mark Sears of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Hunter Dickinson of the Kansas Jayhawks, North Carolina‘s RJ Davis, and Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner on the top five-man squad.
CBS Sports also named Flagg its Preseason Freshman of the Year, which looks nice on the resume next to his Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year nomination from Tuesday’s conference poll.
The Maine native, who helped Montverde Academy finish with an undefeated record as a senior in high school, possesses a rare combination of traits that have basketball scouts throwing words like “generational” around with abandon. The 6-foot-9 forward has the speed and agility to keep up at the perimeter while also operating well inside, and thanks to the strides he’s made as a shooter over the past few years, he looks like a complete package.
After clips emerged of him scoring over NBA superstars at Olympic training camp, analysts around the country started dubbing the 2025 draft a competition for Flagg’s talent.
Davis beat Flagg out for the conference’s Preseason Player of the Year, but all but four ballots picked one of those two, so they seem like the top dogs in the ACC for 2024-25.