Through the first 10 games of the season, it felt like Auburn Tigers forward Johni Broome had already built an insurmountable lead in the national awards race. First-year Duke basketball sensation [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] thinks the sport shouldn’t reach conclusions so fast.
As of December 16, Broome led the KenPom Player of the Year board with a 2.686 kPoY rating to Flagg’s 1.899. The Auburn big man dropped down to 2.494 by Saturday, however, and Flagg rose to 2.071 to make it a two-man race.
No other player sits within 0.8 of Broome with Marquette’s Kam Jones (1.634) in third place.
Broome helped the Tigers sweep Iowa State, North Carolina, and Memphis to win the Maui Invitational by averaging 21.7 points and 15.0 rebounds over the three-game run, and he put together one of his best games of the season with 21 points and 20 boards against the Ohio State Buckeyes on December 14. He only managed five first-half points against the Blue Devils, however, and he scored 11 points in 23 minutes against Richmond.
Flagg scored 22 points in that head-to-head victory, part of a four-game stretch that included a trio of 20-point performances. He dropped 24 points on George Mason, and he’s averaged 16.3 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game as a freshman.
Flagg gets another chance to inch closer to Broome on Tuesday night with a game against Virginia Tech.