Duke’s ACC Supremacy overshadowed by serious “Red Flag” involving Cooper Flagg

Freshman sensation Cooper Flag led Blue Devils past George Mason 68-47 on Tuesday. The play followed the same plan seen during Duke’s now five-game winning streak, with Jon Scheyer leaning on Flagg to deliver again, which he duly did. While the expected no. 1 draft outlook has undeniably been good, for Duke to develop a championship-winning team, more strength across the board may be needed.

While the reliance on Flagg has paid off, as seen in his performance against George Mason where he had 24 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, it has also backfired at times. This was evident in the third game of the season against Kentucky. In the final moments of the game at State Farm Arena, with Duke trailing, Scheyer turned to Flagg and the 17-year-old duly obliged with a game-tying shot. But when play restarted, Kentucky wing Otega Oweh stayed back to mark Flagg and eventually ripped the ball out of Flagg’s grasp as Duke pushed for a winner. After the game, Scheyer acknowledged that he could have done things better.

Back in November, after their win against Wofford, HC Scheyer said that Duke has “11 great players.” Duke fans would have loved nothing more than to see 11 players able to go through rotation without drastically affecting the team, especially after the 2024 season where the lack of a quality bench derailed their campaign. As such, the over-reliance on Flagg could be alarming, at least according to sports analyst Tim Donelly.

Donelly addressed this Wednesday ia YouTube video about 99.9 The Fan channel. He emphasized how Flagg has dominated the Duke team; in the last game he took more than 35% of the total shots taken in the game. While he said the problem wasn’t exactly a “red flag,” he just downgraded it to a “yellow warning flag.”

“A yellow warning flag that came up during the George Mason game and it’s something I’ve noticed a few times. I’ve said a few on the air times there may be a bit of an overreliance on Cooper Flagg, that’s a warning flag. Because if you’re going to depend on someone who’s the number one recruit, an overwhelming favorite to be the next number one draft pick is a good one to be overly dependent on, right? It’s youknow our passing game isn’t great, so we have to lean on the run a lot.”

Donelly then shared the example of how NFL side Philadelphia Eagles operate with running back Saquon Barkley, drawing parallels to Duke and Flagg. He then pointed out how well Flagg did against George Mason in terms of points and assists, but he was concerned. “The thing that kind of jumped out at me, he was 7 for 20 shooting. Now I don’t mind a shootout. I don’t mind ‘hey if I’m cold, I want to shoot my way out of this,’ I don’t want to. The problem I have is they only took 56 shots when a team took over 35% of their team shots to get those 24 points.”

Isaiah Evans, a freshman sharpshooter, could be a key to solving this problem. But against George Mason, Evans played a total of 15 minutes against George Mason and dropped 9 points, compared to the 35 minutes Flagg got. Flagg and fellow rookies Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach have been the best players in the starting lineup from day one, but others have been in and out due to their inconsistencies or simply because coach

Scheyer isn’t willing to change the way they play.

Evans, center Patrick Ngongba II and freshman guard Darren Harris have shown they can hold their own, but their playing time has been limited. Notably, in the loss to Kentucky, none of these three freshmen played a single minute.

Donelly also said the other players need to step up big and deliver for Duke in the coming weeks if there is to be a dip in Flagg’s performance.

“If there’s a night where he’s just off, but if there’s a point like turning around and saying ‘hey, we’ve got other guys toscore, we have all these five stars around me.’ We brought back Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster for a reason, we went to the transfer portal for these guys for a reason. Kon Knueppel was 0 for four from three. Khaman Maluach scored six points on six free throws, 0 for one from the field. When Cooper Flagg has a day where he’s going to shoot 7-for-20, I’d like the other players with high pedigrees to have better days than they did, especially against George Mason.”

After

Jon Scheyer took over as Duke’s head coach in 2022 after the legendary Mike Krzyzewskihe has already shown promise. Scheyer led the team to the NCAA Round of 32 and an Elite Eight appearance during his tenure. This season, the Blue Devils are well on their way to fulfilling fans’ dreams of another championship, something Duke hasn’t seen in nearly a decade. But despite their impressive record, their ACC supremacy might not last long if the game plan is all about turning to Flagg in clutch situations.

Evans in particular is a look into the bottom of the world’s best shooters, and Donelly believes “Numbers will force Jon Scheyer to play him.” He also received praise from Flagg, who talked about how he performed in the game against George Mason.

Cooper Flagg praises Evans after the George Mason win

After the match against Mason, Flagg himself praised Evans, saying: “He just opens up the floor so well with his ability to just come off screens, set his feet and knock down shots. He’s such a skilled player that way. He can do so much — drive it, shoot it, and his defense has come along really well this year.” Evans has proven to be a reliable scorer in minutes. The 6-foot-6 guard is averaging 8.7 points per game. game while shooting a whopping 50% from three-point range.

Georgia Tech is up next for Duke, and it’s a chance to gain some momentum and better incorporate Evans into their game plan. With a chance to dominate the ACC and assert themselves nationally, the Blue Devils must be able to develop a more balanced offense.

The good news is that Flagg isn’t going anywhere, but Scheyer will have to develop a way to incorporate his best players into the system so they can handle what’s coming and maybe not fall short because of their goals because of a single-minded approach.