Tag: 2024-25 Duke Basketball Team

College basketball analyst ranks two Blue Devils among the country’s 10 best freshmen

College basketball analyst Andy Katz ranked the 10 best freshmen in the country on Monday, and a predictable name ended up atop the list.

It should come as no surprise after head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] ended up with six of the top 40 prospects in the Class of 2024, but the Duke men’s basketball team has some of the best freshman talent in the country.

College basketball analyst Andy Katz released a ranking of his top 10 freshmen for the 2024-25 season on Monday, and two Blue Devils debutants made his list.

Predictably, [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] ended up in the top spot. The most anticipated Duke commit since Zion Williamson finished as the No. 1 recruit on every national ranking after he led Montverde Academy to an undefeated season and a Chipotle Nationals victory.

Flagg even got the chance to cut his teeth against Team USA at Olympic training camp, playing against NBA legends as a member of the Select Team. The Duke star went viral for a sequence of back-to-back baskets in one scrimmage, earning praise from former NBA MVP Kevin Durant.

Katz also ranked [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], the 7-foot-2 center from South Sudan, as the seventh-best first-year player in the country. Malauch recently represented his country at the Olympic Games at just 17 years old, the youngest basketball player in Paris.

Katz didn’t even include Isaiah Evans, a five-star who won North Carolina Mr. Basketball honors each of the past two years, or Kon Knueppel, the breakout star of the offseason who keeps rising up 2025 NBA draft boards.

No matter which combination of freshmen fans choose to place their faith in, the Blue Devils have the deepest stable of new talent in the country.

Duke basketball teases photos of Cooper Flagg in a Blue Devils jersey

The Duke basketball team shared a sneak peek of top-ranked freshman Cooper Flagg in uniform on Friday night.

Duke basketball fans are about to get a lot more [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] content on their social media feeds.

The Blue Devils posted about the top-ranked freshman again on Friday night, this time with some photos from the team media day. The Maine native wore the No. 2 jersey that’s surely about to become the most iconic image on campus, posing with a basketball.

The consensus No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2024, Flagg is the most anticipated Duke basketball commit since the days of [autotag]Zion Williamson[/autotag]. He led Montverde Academy to an undefeated season as a senior before scrimmaging against Team USA at Olympic training camp, earning praise from Kevin Durant and NBA scouts.

Ever since he first committed to the Blue Devils last October, fans have eagerly awaited his debut at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Now, Flagg is less than two weeks from his first appearance in front of the Cameron Crazies. He’ll play twice in October, first at the Countdown to Craziness on October 4 before an exhibition against Arizona State on October 27.

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Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg is the country’s best wing, one reporter says

College basketball writer Andy Katz listed the best wings for 2024-25 on Wednesday, and Duke freshman Cooper Flagg took the top spot.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] hasn’t played a minute for Duke basketball yet, and he’s already receiving praise as one of the nation’s best players.

College basketball writer Andy Katz released his list of the top 16 wings in the country on Wednesday, and the nation’s top-ranked freshman took the very top spot.

Flagg’s hype train has been gaining steam since his first days of high school basketball, and he reclassified to the Class of 2024 and still earned the No. 1 spot in every major recruiting ranking. However, he made the leap into generational conversations as a senior. He led Montverde Academy to an undefeated season and a victory at Chipotle Nationals, and he attended Team USA Olympic training camp as a member of the Select Team, the only collegiate player in attendance.

Flagg went viral for his performance against the U.S. Olympic team in scrimmages, throwing down a dunk in one contest and scoring consecutive baskets in a dominant minute-long stretch in another. Scouts said he looked like the best player on the Select Team, and analysts said NBA teams should already be fighting over the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft in his honor.

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Flagg has said all offseason that he takes pride in his work on the defensive end, and that’ll be his better side of the ball from day one in Durham. At 6-foot-9 with guard quickness, he could average one steal and one block per game pretty comfortably.

The real threat to him reaching some rarified air as a prospect is how well he develops as a three-level scorer. After he already made some strides from 3-point range as a senior, he could potentially make more than 35% of his distance looks in 2024-25, and that combined with his athleticism would make him a force to be reckoned with.

Cooper Flagg wins Duke basketball pacer contest in newest practice video

Duke basketball freshman Cooper Flagg, routinely praised for his effort and hustle, earned some bragging rights during practice on Monday.

Every time Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer has spoken about top-ranked freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], he’s praised his effort and hustle.

Flagg, one of the most hyped college basketball prospects in years, is pitched as the ultimate competitor and described himself as someone who takes pride in his defense. On Monday, he picked up the ultimate bragging rights for his play style.

He won the Blue Devils’ pacer contest.

The pacer test, notorious among all American public school students, asks its participants to start running after a beep. If the athletes don’t cross a certain distance (in this case, three-quarters of a basketball court and back) by the following beep, they’re eliminated. The beeps gradually get closer together, increasing the difficulty, and the goal is to go until you fail.

In a video shared by the Duke social media team on Monday, Flagg was the last Blue Devil standing in the team’s version of the contest, adding yet another feather to his decorated cap.

Even more encouraging than that, the rest of his teammates rooted him on as he tried to get one final run in. Purdue transfer Mason Gillis fired him up before he started, and Tyrese Proctor and Isaiah Evans ran the last set with him to help him over the line.

Duke basketball fans can watch Flagg tough out those last few runs below.

Duke freshman Kon Knueppel says his father is his biggest basketball influence

Five-star Duke basketball freshman Kon Knueppel didn’t need to look very far for an on-court role model growing up.

It’s pretty impossible to learn a lot about Wisconsin basketball without running into the Knueppel family.

Five-star freshman [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] might have come to Duke for his collegiate career, but his father (also named Kon) held the all-time scoring mark at Wisconsin Lutheran College for more than 20 years. If you include his brothers, Kole and Klay, the Knueppel family has three of the top four 3-point shooting percentages in school history.

It should then come as no surprise that, during a Tuesday edition of The Brotherhood Podcast, Knueppel looked within his family for role models.

“Probably my dad,” Knueppel said when asked who he looked up to on the court. “Just watching him play all my life, how to play the right way, how to get others open, get others involved, communicating on defense, doing all the little stuff.”

Knueppel’s father was inducted into the Wisconsin Lutheran Hall of Fame in 2014, and Klay now coaches the school’s women’s basketball team.

The Kon Knueppel hype train rolls on as Duke teammate Isaiah Evans says he doesn’t miss

Few incoming freshman have gained as much hype as Kon Knueppel this offseason, and teammate Isaiah Evans added fuel to the fire last week.

In any year without [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] on the roster, [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] would be the runaway preseason darling for Duke basketball fans.

The support for the Wisconsin native has grown all offseason, from a writer for The Athletic calling him the second-best freshman in Duke’s loaded 2024 class to Flagg himself saying Knueppel impressed him the most during the first days of practice.

During last week’s episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, Knueppel gained another vocal supporter in classmate Isaiah Evans.

“Bro don’t miss,” Evans said. “He don’t miss, bro.”

When sophomore teammate Caleb Foster, the podcast host, said that everyone else had the same answer, Evams seemed unsurprised.

“You just can’t leave him, bro,” Evans said. “If I’m guarding him, you got no help. I can’t help you.”

“I’m excited for everybody to see him play,” Foster added.

The reigning Wisconsin Mr. Basketball was one of the top 20 prospects in the country, earning MaxPreps All-American honors and leading Wisconsin Lutheran High School to a state title.

Cooper Flagg explains why he picked Duke and talks about schools talking down Blue Devils

Cooper Flagg said he felt a connection to Duke on his visit, but he added that other schools kept doing this one thing that drove him to Durham.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the top-ranked prospect in the Class of 2024, sent shock waves through the college basketball world when he picked the Duke Blue Devils.

His commitment heralded one of the best recruiting classes in recent college basketball history as head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] pulled in three other five-star prospects and two additional four-star players. All in all, the Blue Devils finished with six top-50 recruits when the dust settled.

During a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, Flagg talked to sophomore teammate Caleb Foster about why he picked the program.

“It was something that coach Scheyer had stressed to me a lot going through the whole process was about the feel,” Flagg said. “Like I would know when I got the feeling of where I wanted to be.”

“I think it really came down to when I came on my visit and I was just able to meet all of the guys on your team last year, interact with the coaches a bunch more, and just kind of had that feeling of being on campus and really just imagining myself being here,” he continued. “Once I kind of felt that, I kind of had the feeling of, like, this was where I want to be.”

Foster, a four-star recruit in his own right, and Flagg agreed on one thing other schools tried that didn’t work for them.

“When we were going and talking to other schools, just kind of like, ‘Oh, Duke doesn’t have this,’ ‘This is why you shouldn’t go to Duke,'” Foster said. “Everybody recruiting against Duke, it’s like, bro, what do you have to offer? Why are you worried about Duke?”

“I think most players out there do not like when coaches will do that type of stuff,” Flagg added.

Flagg confirmed earlier in the video that his decision came down to the Blue Devils and two-time defending champion Connecticut.

Cooper Flagg describes himself as ‘versatile’, someone who does ‘all of the little things’

During a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, Cooper Flagg gave Blue Devils fans a breakdown on his own game.

A lot of basketball fans have weighed in on [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] this offseason.

NBA scouts thought he might be the best player on the USA Select Team during Olympic training camp. NBA stars like Kevin Durant see his potential. Sports anchors and analysts think he’ll run the college basketball world.

But how does Flagg see himself?

During a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, the top-ranked freshman in the country sat down with sophomore teammate Caleb Foster and broke down exactly that.

“I’m pretty versatile,” Flagg said. “Two-way player. I like to take pride in playing defense, getting rebounds. Doing all of the little things, really. But then also, offensively, I can do a lot, too.”

Flagg described himself as a three-level scorer, a scary thought for the 6-foot-9 prospect whose defense shines on tape. During Montverde’s undefeated 2023-24 season his senior year, Flagg averaged 2.7 blocks per game while also dishing 3.8 assists.

Check out Flagg’s answer and the rest of his half-hour Brotherhood appearance below.

Duke basketball will play Arizona and Kansas in a five-day span this November

With the Duke basketball game against Arizona moving back a day, the week before Thanksgiving now gets crowded for the Blue Devils.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and his Duke basketball teammates won’t get much rest the week before Thanksgiving this fall.

With the Monday news that the Blue Devils will now play Arizona on November 22, Duke now plays the Wildcats and the Kansas Jayhawks within a five-day span.

They’ll travel out west for a road battle with Caleb Love after Arizona came to Durham last year. They’ll then head to Las Vegas to play the Jayhawks for the 2024 Vegas Showdown on November 26.

The November gauntlet becomes part of a loaded non-conference schedule for head coach Jon Scheyer’s squad. Flagg and his teammates play Kentucky, Auburn, and George Mason before the end of the calendar year.

There’s also a looming Madison Square Garden matchup with Illinois that could potentially come in February.

Duke men’s basketball rematch against Arizona officially moved to November 22

Arizona revealed on Monday that this fall’s rematch against the Duke Blue Devils, the finale of a home-and-home, will now be played on November 22.

Duke basketball’s revenge game against Arizona got a new official date on Monday.

The Wildcats revealed that the second part of their home-and-home series against the Blue Devils will now take place on November 22.

The announcement moves the game back one day after the initial agreement circled November 21. Some reporters, such as Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, implied the date change might be imminent earlier this summer.

In the second game of the 2023-24 season, the Wildcats came into Cameron Indoor Stadium and walked away with a 78-73 victory. The battle famously brought former North Carolina star Caleb Love, who transferred to Arizona, back to Tobacco Road. He finished the upset with 11 points, three rebounds, and three assists.

Love announced earlier this summer that he would return to the Wildcats for his final year of eligibility, meaning the Blue Devils have one last chance to exact their pound of flesh from one of the most hated figures in program history.

Check out the most notable non-conference opponents on Duke’s 2024-25 schedule here.