DURHAM, N.C. — Twenty minutes was just a taste.
Or really, tease.
Only so much can be gleaned from preseason events, team meetings, and intra-squad events, like Duke’s countdown to Craziness on Friday night. It has as much to do with mood lighting, air cannons, and silly pre-draft dances — as much as any actual basketball. Obviously they don’t count.
But they have meaning.
Especially in the case of this preseason projected top-five team — with the nation’s top freshman in Cooper Flagg and a host of other NBA hopefuls — this is a glimpse. A snapshot of what’s possible. So when you see junior guard Tyrese Proctor on the fast break, with Flagg — the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft — running in front of him, then you see Proctor kicking an executed pass forward, and you see Flagg loading the ball. He’s heading towards the edge…
Well, you have to start imagining the possibilities. In terms of the high-flying acrobatics that are about to unfold, yes, but also beyond that. Your mind jumps forward, to the kinds of incredible plays and plays this team might have in store if it can deliver even a fraction of the hype that continues to build around it.
The moment, at least, was delivered: Flagg rose easily from Cameron Indoor Court, then twisted backwards in the air and delivered a slam dunk home run with a calm attitude.
His face seemed to say that there was more to come.
“You can’t really describe that feeling when you’re out there playing,” Flagg said. “This kind of thing is something you can’t really experience until it happens.”
Flagg finished the night with 13 points — third overall, considering players were changing teams in the first half — as well as three rebounds, three assists and two turnovers. He was…well, if not very respectful.
“I thought Cooper tonight was a little hesitant, just feeling things,” coach John Scheier said. “That’s the beauty of Coop: He’s a team player, and he has a great feel for the game.”
This was evident even on his first basket. The 6-foot-9 Maine native drove left from beyond the arc, then switched the ball to his right hand in midair, showcasing the touch and inside finishing he’s known for. From the front row of Duke’s student section, through the rousing applause, you could hear Cameron Crazy note the occasion:
Those were Cooper Flagg’s first points at Duke.
Freshness around Flagg, especially early on — and especially if he’s as good as expected, anywhere near the Zion Williamson stratosphere no one has occupied in college hoops since — will be important. His first dunk. First choose six. First 20-point game, first double-double. All of it. And we will note, seriously, the continued rise of someone who the masses already consider “generational” before his 18th birthday. (That’s December 21, by the way; Georgia Tech drew the short baton and hosted the Blue Devils that night.)
Flagg, of course, can’t look at this season that way. Neither can his teammates, and several of them – like new teammates Khaman Maluach and Kuhn Knoebel – will likely follow him to the NBA as early as next June. If Duke learned anything from Williamson’s star-studded 2018-19 season, it’s how to handle the spectacle that follows the phenomenon.
“You just have to stay present,” Proctor said. “Everyone knows who Cobb is. Everyone knows who Khamane is. Everyone knows who all these guys are. So I think from day one, everyone was on the same page. We didn’t necessarily have to sit down and talk about, ‘We’re going to beat me.’ Everyone knows It kind of is.”
But saying it in front of your home fans, on a night that’s more celebratory than serious, is one thing – and maintaining it after a tough spell at the start of the season is quite another. In the first month of the season, Duke (deep breath) plays Kentucky in the Tournament of Champions Classic in Atlanta, Ariz., versus Kansas in Las Vegas, all before hosting Auburn in the ACC-SEC Challenge in early December. Here are three of The Athletic’s top 10 teams, one after another after another. We’ll have a pretty good idea by Flagg’s birthday what kind of talent he is, what kind of team Duke is — and how fair national title expectations for this team really are.
Friday was a taste of it all, 20 minutes before the 30-plus games Duke will face over the next five — and maybe six — months.
Nothing is worth overreacting to.
But it’s worth mentioning, if nothing else. Because Friday was the beginning of Flagg and Duke.
“I loved seeing him dressed as the Duke tonight,” Shire said. “I know that much.”
(Photo: Grant Halvorson/Getty Images)
