Luke DeCock: Let Cooper Flagg up the ladder to cut down the net if Duke wins ... but win it without him

Luke DeCock, The News & Observer on Mar 13, 2025

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cooper Flagg was able to go through the handshake line after Duke’s win over Georgia Tech — gingerly, to be sure, but functionally. His right hand is fine. His left ankle is capable of doing that much.

And a handshake line is as close as the Duke freshman should get to the basketball court the rest of this ACC Tournament.

When he slipped under the basket late in the first half, with Duke trailing the Yellow Jackets in what turned out to be a surprisingly tense affair, Flagg’s left ankle bent inward in a way the human ankle just isn’t designed to bend.

At one point during halftime, he was being shuttled around in a wheelchair, but X-rays were negative and he returned to the Duke bench early in the second half to watch the rest of the Blue Devils complete the comeback from a 14-point first half deficit and set up Friday’s rematch with the North Carolina-Wake Forest winner.

“Obviously it’s disappointing,” said Kon Knueppel, who had a game-high 28 for Duke, “but we’ll keep pushing.”

Flagg’s sprained ankle joins the storied annals of famous ACC Tournament ankles (Armando Bacot, 2023; Joel Berry, 2017; Luol Deng, 2004) but that should be the extent of his contribution to tourney lore. Duke has nothing to gain by putting Flagg back out on the court. Nor should he be.

As Duke coach Jon Scheyer pointed out Saturday after beating North Carolina, he didn’t care about being No. 1 in the AP poll on Monday; he cared about being No. 1 at the end of the season. Winning the ACC title, as much as Duke would like to hang a banner, doesn’t help with that. Nor does risking Flagg’s health to do it.

Scheyer acknowledged as much afterward. Could Flagg play Friday? Maybe. Should he? Clearly not.

“To be honest with you, I would have to be, like, convinced by everybody in the locker room when I go back there that he should play,” Scheyer said. “It’s not worth it. It just isn’t.”

That’s true of Saturday as well, although there’s a stronger case to be made there if any pain or swelling in Flagg’s ankle are under control.

Still: It’s not worth it. It just isn’t.

Lost in the shuffle a little bit, Maliq Brown’s injury may be even more concerning. After re-dislocating his left shoulder, shortly before Flagg went out, Brown actually ended up in the hospital. He showed against North Carolina just how much of a game-changer he can be on defense, the kind of player who enables Duke to do so much more, a defensive force multiplier.

Brown missed 19 days when he originally injured the shoulder. Nineteen days from now is the week of the Final Four. That’s not typically a timetable that can be rushed, nor is it a definite one at this point.

“My main concern is just seeing him in such pain,” Scheyer said. “I would hate to speculate without really knowing.”

As gruesome as Flagg’s ankle looked, there’s an elasticity to that collection of bones and ligaments and tendons that shoulders lack. Basketball players have not only returned a day later but returned to the same game with worse-looking sprains than Flagg’s. It’s entirely possible he could be no worse for wear by the time Friday night rolls around.

So what? As far as Duke is concerned, this season, Roy Williams is right: This ACC tournament is just a cocktail party. The Blue Devils will be judged not by whether they win an ACC title but where they are the first week of April. Flagg may help with the first task. He’s indispensable to the second.

So let Cooper Flagg shake all the hands he wants. Let him on the ladder to cut down his piece of the net if Duke wins the ACC Tournament — but let the Blue Devils win it without him.