Tag: Cooper Flagg

Duke basketball narrowly hangs within the top 10 of the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

The Duke Blue Devils (barely) stayed within the top 10 of the USA TODAY Sports Men’s College Basketball Coaches Poll.

Despite suffering their first loss of the season on Tuesday, the Duke Blue Devils grabbed the last spot within the top 10 of the USA TODAY Sports men’s basketball coaches poll on Monday.

Head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] and his team obliterated Wofford at Cameron Indoor Stadium over the weekend, but the performance won’t be enough to erase lingering doubts created by the midweek defeat. The Kentucky Wildcats outscored Duke 24-11 over the final 10 minutes to steal a 77-72 win, and superstar freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] turned the ball over twice on the last two possessions after scoring 26 points.

If Scheyer and the Blue Devils want a chance to erase that memory from all the voters, however, they’ll have chances over the next week. Duke’s next two opponents both sit within the top 20 with Arizona at No. 17 and the Kansas Jayhawks still in the top spot.

Check out the complete results of this week’s coaches poll below:

Rank Team Record Points
1 Kansas 4-0 665 (21)
2 UConn 3-0 632 (3)
3 Auburn 3-0 608 (2)
4 Gonzaga 3-0 599 (1)
5 Iowa State 2-0 516
6 Purdue 4-0 513
7 Houston 2-1 470
7 Alabama 3-1 470
9 Tennessee 4-0 462
10 Duke 3-1 421
11 Kentucky 3-0 381
12 North Carolina 2-1 377
13 Creighton 4-0 348
14 Marquette 4-0 319
15 Baylor 3-1 313
16 Cincinnati 3-0 229
17 Arizona 2-1 228
18 Indiana 3-0 208
19 Florida 4-0 168
20 Illinois 3-0 133
21 St. John’s 4-0 119
22 Texas Tech 3-0 95
23 Texas A&M 3-1 94
24 Arkansas 2-1 82
25 Wisconsin 4-0 75

Dropped Out

No. 22 Ohio State; No. 24 Rutgers

Receiving Votes

Rutgers 56; Xavier 43; Ole Miss 39; BYU 28; Saint Mary’s 18; Pittsburgh 18; Texas 14; Michigan State 9; Mississippi State 5; Oregon 4; Nevada 4; Ohio State 3; Dayton 3; Wake Forest 2; VCU 2; UCF 2

Every Duke basketball game is ‘a little bit of an experiment’ for head coach Jon Scheyer

Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer let fans know that the Blue Devils, with plenty of new talent, will keep evolving throughout the season.

Nine different Duke basketball players scored in the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s blowout win over Wofford, a testament to the depth of head coach Jon Scheyer’s recruiting.

After losing 10 players from last year’s rotation to either the NBA, transfer portal, or expired eligibility, Scheyer replenished his roster with six freshmen and four transfer additions. However, with four top-25 opponents in the first eight games, that also means the third-year coach is meeting his 2024-25 team in real-time.

“It’s not like you’re afforded opportunities to experiment,” Scheyer said. “And really, every game is a little bit of an experiment because it’s my first time with all of these guys except Caleb (Foster) and Tyrese (Proctor).”

The slight unsteadiness, especially in his first-year talent, reared its head in the second half of Tuesday’s loss to the Kentucky Wildcats. Only different eight Blue Devils took the court across the entire game, including Tulane transfer Sion James, who left in the second half with a shoulder injury. Superstar forward [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the only Duke player with a made shot over the final 10 mintues, scored 12 of the team’s last 14 points.

Two players who didn’t sub in against Kentucky, freshmen Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba, made their case for prime minutes on Saturday. Evans scored 14 points in 12 minutes, making four of his seven 3-point tries, and Ngongba came away with five offensive rebounds and two assists in his collegiate debut.

“It’s hard to play eleven guys,” Scheyer said. “So finding out what that balance is, how deep can you go, who can be ready…Just because we start a certain way or play a certain way now doesn’t mean it’s going to end up that way. This is a long process.”

The next step of that process comes on Friday with a road game against Arizona.

The best Duke basketball photos from Saturday’s big win over Wofford

Check out the best photos from Duke’s record-setting win over the Wofford Terriers on Saturday.

The Duke Blue Devils did all they could to wipe away their first loss from their memories, holding Wofford to a program-record 35 points in a turbulence-free victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday.

Nine different Duke basketball players scored in the first 20 minutes, and eight different Blue Devils added at least one assist during the 51-14 opening half. Superstar freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] only scored eight points, but he grabbed nine rebounds on top of six assists, three steals, and two blocks for another well-rounded box score.

The biggest boost came from behind the arc. After finishing a paltry 4/24 (16.7%) from 3-point range against the Kentucky Wildcats, Duke converted 16 of its 38 attempts from distance on Saturday to bounce back toward its early form.

National pundits will brush away the 51-point victory because of the opponent, but any confidence gained this weekend will be essential for an upcoming road trip that includes the Arizona Wildcats and Kansas Jayhawks. Here are the best photos from Saturday’s win.

How many points did Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg score against Wofford?

Here’s how Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg performed against the Wofford Terriers on Saturday.

On Tuesday, [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] looked like the only Blue Devil who could score against the Kentucky Wildcats. Flagg put 12 of the Blue Devils’ last 14 points on the board, finishing with a game-high 26 in the 77-72 loss.

Back at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the exact opposite seemed to be true. Duke benefitted from a poor shooting performance from Wofford, but the Blue Devils still built a 51-14 lead at the midway point after holding their opponents to six baskets on 30 attempts.

Wofford’s 35 points are the fewest Duke has allowed in a single game since the invention of the shot clock, and the offense got back on track from distance as well. After making four of their 24 3-point shots against the Wildcats, the Blue Devils made 16 of their 38 triples (42.1%) on their home court. But how much of that production came from their freshman superstar?

Here’s a breakdown of the top-ranked freshman’s performance against the Terriers.

Cooper Flagg points scored vs. Wofford:

Flagg only finished with eight points against the Terriers, making three of his eight shots from the floor and one of his five 3-point looks. However, the 17-year-old tacked on nine rebounds, six assists, three steals, and two blocks in just 28 minutes.

Did Duke win?

The Blue Devils won 86-35 thanks to their dominant first half.

Cooper Flagg’s next game:

The Duke Blue Devils will return to the court on Friday with a road game against the Arizona Wildcats, the first of two straight ranked games out west.

Duke basketball broke a program record with their defensive performance against Wofford

Duke basketball held the Wofford Terriers to just 35 points on Saturday, setting a new program record in the progress.

The Duke Blue Devils wasted no time erasing their first loss from the ledger with an 86-35 victory over Wofford on Saturday, setting a new school record in the process.

The Terriers’ 35 points were the fewest the Blue Devils have allowed in a game during the shot clock era. Some luck broke Duke’s way early on with Wofford missing several open 3-point looks, but the Terriers still shot just 14/57 (24.6%) from the floor and 5/33 (15.2%) from 3-point range.

There might be some karmic justice in that second stat after the Blue Devils went 4/24 from three against the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday. Duke made at least 38% of its 3-point looks in each of its three other games, including a 16/38 (42.1%) performance on Saturday.

Wofford only managed 14 points before the half, tied for the second-fewest by a Duke opponent in the shot clock era. The Blue Devils held Eastern Michigan to 13 points in the first 20 minutes back in November 2018.

Duke put together three blocks and 11 steals as a team, and 17-year-old phenom [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] rejected two shots and snagged three steals by himself. Sophomore guard Caleb Foster and Tulane transfer Sion James also finished with multiple takeaways, two of the seven Blue Devils with at least one for the game.

Duke basketball dominates Wofford in best first-half performance under Jon Scheyer

The Duke Blue Devils bounced back with a Saturday win over Wofford behind a scoring avalanche during the opening half.

The Duke Blue Devils knew they wouldn’t erase any lingering questions from Tuesday’s loss to the Kentucky Wildcats with one game, but they sure tried with an 86-35 home victory over the Wofford Terriers.

After missing their first four shots of the afternoon, the Blue Devils caught fire and wouldn’t cool down until the midway point. Days after Duke made just four of their 24 3-point attempts as a team in Atlanta, Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel made back-to-back triples to take the lead in the third minute.

Proctor, the only player who spent each of the past two seasons with head coach Jon Scheyer, roared out of the gates again. After he put together 10 points with two threes in the first 20 minutes against the Wildcats, he tallied nine of the Blue Devils’ first 14 points with an assist on top. He ended the opening frame with 12 points, nearly equaling the Terriers by himself, with two dimes.

After 17-year-old phenom [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] was the only Duke player to make a shot from the floor over the final 10 minutes against Kentucky, Scheyer and the Blue Devils took a different approach on Saturday. From the 15:01 to 5:28 marks in the first half, Duke outscored Wofford 27-2 thanks to eight different players getting to the basket.

Khaman Maluach, the freshman 7-footer, scored seven points in four minutes emphasized by an alley-oop dunk. Fellow first-year center Patrick Ngongba, making his collegiate debut, notched his first career points and won several rebounding battles. Isaiah Evans, yet another member of the 2024 recruiting class, tallied eight points and an assist in his first four minutes on the court thanks to a pair of 3-pointers.

Eleven different players took the court in the first half on Saturday. Nine of them scored at least two points, and eight of them recorded an assist. Despite Flagg only notching five points on five shots, the Blue Devils created a 51-14 advantage after 20 minutes for the largest halftime lead in Scheyer’s three years as head coach.

The Cameron Crazies could pick their favorite stat to detail Saturday’s dominance. Duke finished with 43 rebounds to Wofford’s 29. The Blue Devils recovered with a 16/38 (42.1%) performance from 3-point range. However blowouts can be quantified, Scheyer and his players checked the box. Flagg finished with just eight points, but he stuffed the stat sheet elsewhere with nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks, and three steals for his contribution.

The confidence from Saturday’s win will prove necessary in the coming 10 days. The Blue Devils get nearly a full week off before Saturday’s trip to Arizona for a battle with the Wildcats, and Duke plays top-ranked Kansas in Las Vegas just four days later.

Duke women’s basketball freshman Toby Fournier off to the program’s best start in a decade

Duke women’s basketball freshman Toby Fournier recorded her fourth straight 10-point game on Thursday, teetering her toward school history.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] isn’t the only Duke basketball freshman turning heads in Durham this season.

[autotag]Toby Fournier[/autotag], a 6-foot-2 forward from Canada, scored 15 points in just 19 minutes off the bench in an 84-49 victory over Dayton on Thursday. The performance marked her fourth consecutive game with at least 10 points to open the season, making her the first Blue Devil to accomplish that feat since Becca Greenwell in 2014-15.

Fournier, the No. 10 overall recruit in the 2024 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings from espnW, notched 10 points in her debut against Radford. She followed that up with 13 points against Liberty and 15 points against Maryland to raise her scoring average to 13.3 points to start the year, the highest on the team.

She’s also averaging 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks, and she’s attempted 20 free throws over the last three games despite never playing more than 24 minutes.

“You can see she’s going to be really efficient,” head coach Kara Lawson said after last week’s win over Liberty.

Lawson already brought back her four leading scorers from last year’s team, and the Blue Devils reached the Sweet 16 in that run. With another year of experience and the addition of Fournier, something could be brewing in Durham.

Duke basketball drops two spots to fifth in KenPom rankings after Kentucky loss

After Tuesday night’s loss to the Kentucky Wildcats, the Duke Blue Devils dropped down two spots in the KenPom rankings.

The Duke Blue Devils suffered their first loss of the season on Tuesday night, dropping a 77-72 game to the Kentucky Wildcats after getting outscored 24-11 over the final 10 minutes.

As a result, head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] and his team slipped down two spots to fifth in the KenPom adjusted efficiency rankings on Wednesday mornings.

The Blue Devils began the year second in the rankings (which contrast adjusted points scored versus adjusted points allowed per 100 possessions) thanks to freshman stars like [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag]. The 17-year-old phenom turned the ball over twice in the final 15 seconds against the Wildcats, but he scored 12 of Duke’s last 14 points to keep them afloat to begin with.

“I trust his instincts,” Scheyer said after the game. “I probably could have put him in a better position, to be honest, but he’s got to touch it and trust that good things are going to happen.”

The Auburn Tigers jumped Duke over the weekend thanks to their win over Houston, and the Gonzaga Bulldogs and Connecticut Huskies shuffled above the Blue Devils on Wednesday. Arizona, Duke’s next ranked opponent, sits one spot below them in sixth.

Kentucky lept up 10 spots to 20th after the stunning upset.

Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer still wants the ball in Cooper Flagg’s hands at the end

Despite his two late turnovers on Tuesday night against Kentucky, Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg still has Jon Scheyer’s full confidence.

[autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] scored 26 points against the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday night, 12 more than any other member of the Duke Blue Devils, but the lasting memory from his performance came in the final 15 seconds.

Flagg turned the ball over twice on Duke’s last two possessions, letting the ball get swatted away from behind on one before losing control of his dribble and going out of bounds on the next. The ensuing Kentucky possessions created the five-point margin of defeat.

Despite the miscues, head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] didn’t sound particularly interested in reexamining his end-of-game strategy afterward.

“I trust his instincts,” Scheyer said of his star freshman. “I probably could have put him in a better position, to be honest, but he’s got to touch it and trust that good things are going to happen.”

The third-year coach also fairly pointed out that Flagg’s prior success was the only reason the Blue Devils had a chance to begin with. The forward scored 12 of Duke’s last 14 points, routinely making go-ahead or game-tying plays in the previous minutes.

“I wish you could say that every time, it’s going to work out,” Scheyer continued. “That’s not reality.”

Flagg, for his part, sounded like he appreciated the vote of confidence from his coach, regardless of the result.

“I’m glad he had that trust in me to put the ball in my hands,” Flagg said. “And I’m looking for it in that moment. It didn’t work out, but I’m still going to look for it no matter what.”

Flagg and the Blue Devils return home for a Saturday game against Wofford.

Jon Scheyer calls the Duke basketball cramp problem ‘concerning’ after Kentucky loss

For the third time in three games on Tuesday night, a Duke basketball freshman left the game with cramps in the second half.

The Duke men’s basketball team lost to the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday night, a second-half collapse that saw the Blue Devils get outscored 24-11 over the final 10 minutes.

Freshman center [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag]’s absence played a big role in the late-game swing. The 7-foot-2 star finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, but he spent a large chunk of the second half on the bench as he dealt with cramps.

With Maluach needing to leave the game, cramps become an alarming trend for the first-year Blue Devils. Star forward [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] exited the first two games against Maine and Army with the same problem, and head coach Jon Scheyer sounded well aware of the connection after the game.

“Yeah, I mean, look, it’s concerning,” Scheyer said. “I think part of it is we have young bodies…Again, we’re not trying to just dip our toes in the water, we need Cooper to play a lot. And Khaman.”

“That’s something we’ve got to take a hard look at,” he concluded.

The Blue Devils host Wofford at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday, but the following two games come against Arizona on the road and Kansas at a neutral site. So the faster any potential problems get solved, the better.