Cooper Flagg leads Duke into Final Four spotlight at just 18 years old

Cooper Flagg leads Duke into Final Four spotlight at just 18 years old


Cooper Flagg leads Duke into Final Four spotlight at just 18 years old

San Antonio – Mark this only in case. Only five freshmen were sometimes appointed the most important player in Final Four, from Utah’s Arnie Ferrin in 1944, a year before it was developed into World War II in 2015, Duke’s Tyus Jones. It just doesn’t happen too often. He takes a special player in the right place at the right time.

Talk about Blue Devil, here comes Cooper Flagg. Let’s spend Friday afternoon in Final Four with the most ballyhooed player in the field – not to mention the youngest.

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It is 12:50 in the Alamodome Media Interview Room and Associated Press presents its university basketball player of the year. Members of the Duke team are scattered in the rear ranks. One of their own is about to win the price. The best university player in the country – who was only 18 years old just before Christmas.

“I think the whole tournament process has been unbelievable for me so far,” Flagg says when he accepts the price while the other Blue Devils are cheering. “These are the moments you eat as a small child. I just try to weigh these moments with my teammates we have left. The journey ends here.”

These are the last four veterans, gears to their second (or third) wind and other long timers waiting for their chance. Except for the Dukes. The Duke begins with three freshmen, and this includes Flagg, who had four double double for Blue Devils before he was 18. Weekend mop type.

It’s 13:30 and here comes Cooper Flagg again. Honor the next player of the year – this Oscar Robertson Award from the Association of American Basketball Writers. Plus his planned Friday meeting with coach Jon Scheyer. The lecturer mentions Flagg is the youngest winner in the history of the prize. Like him, he was the youngest player of the division, who had ever earned 40 points in the game. There are cameras, microphones, media from tens. What has been said earlier, as he hoped for a child whenever he could? Right.

“I think I’m a regular child. I’m fine in basketball, I think,” he says. “We just do normal things that every teenager likes to do any children. They’re not a kind of way, being humble, being who I am, how I was raised by my parents.

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Good luck is no different than anyone else in this city this weekend.

The day before, Scheyer was asked to name his favorite Cooper Flagg ad. Imagine that Mike Krzyzewski was asked this question on his last four, which was only three years ago. You can’t. The world has changed. In any case, Scheyer chose AT&T Bingo advertising when Flagg played with his grandmother. First, first March madness.

Now Flagg is in the microphone and talks about how to combine all the elements of modern university athlete and the maze of business and basketball. “You have to be able to decrypt through and figure it out and keep basketball the most important thing. It’s obvious that it’s the first thing. I think just having a tight circle, me and my family, all these people keep me ground, keep me focused.

His parents are in the audience. Someone mentions that the Duke mothers have committed themselves to getting tattoos if their sons come home champions. Kelly Flagg even said she would let Cooper choose style and location.

“I will have to carefully consider my possibilities and really catch a smart decision on what I want to do if I want to torture it or …,”, “Cooper says.” I will have to think about it. ” development. I think she enjoyed me all the time, “says Cooper.” The competitive edge is what made her play against me against me. Yeah, my mom and dad, countless hours that spent me in the gym at night, bounced off, gave me the ball. I have to give my father a little recognition. Mum sometimes a little lines. Dad would never say no to take me to the gym, what would it be. “

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Now about this tattoo. Scheyer says he asks his wife to get her too if the Duke wins. Maybe he too. Flagg, the hottest thing that comes from the Maine State from a lobster role, has helped to allow such joking.

“He’s a person who is every day,” says Scheyer. “His energy is contagious for our team. He is a wonderful leader. The work he did in the class in Duke (4.0 for the first term). Only everything he did to this year’s new height this year. It’s almost 14 hours and Scheyer and Flagg have to get to Alamodome Court for Blue Devils open.” The way he holds on stage is very easy to forget how old he is, “says Father Ralph. He also describes how the family kept the circle around her son very small and highly selective to get him with this new glory and prepare him for his dive at the deep end of the NBA.

“There is no Maine to rely on these types of things, because Maine did not happen.” Now he understands that it will be a little different for him. We try to give him any opportunity he can. “He already asked when this season ends when we return to Maine?”

Ralph mentions that he first got the idea long ago that basketball could be something that could take his son far away, even into the last four media storms in San Antonio. When Cooper played as a second comparator, the recreational league was the third and fourth class. “There’s a ball that comes out of the border, turning over the incoming teammates, sprinting on the floor and gets the ball back and throws it on the layout. As a second comparator, how do you have body control and know-how?

Houston and his defense of cold eyes are waiting for this basketball phenomenon. Of course, Flagg can’t do it alone. It will be the biggest name in Duke’s offer to entertain a moment with teenagers. Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach are other starters of the starters renowned and then there are veteran guardians of Sion James and Tyrese Proctor and a solid bench that fills the puzzle. “Brilliance Jon is how he isolated those people with veterans. There are not enough about it,” said Houston coach Kelvin Sampson. “I think you can get away with playing some freshmen if you have veterans around you. But the boys have stopped being somewhere around. By Christmas, hell, they could have been sophomores. Now they’re just professionals.”

Especially flagg.

So it is Houston and Cougars are old hands that bother the stars of another team. Did you see what they did to poor Tennessee last weekend? It took the first half to get to 15 points. Houston was on a defensive attack from the tip. “What helps us for the first 10 minutes,” Emanuel Sharp said on Thursday. “I feel that they are discomfort, and it set the tone for the rest of the game.” Cooper Flagg and society are a challenge for them. However, no big shooter does not scare the team that allows less points than any other defense in the country.

“I feel that we have defenders of elite districts, we will do a good job to show the bodies. We will see what we do there,” Milos Uzan said. “I believe I can play in the NBA. I look at it as if I competed against another guy.”

It is 14:30 and Duke is on the pitch, with players lofting shots at both ends and a huge wave of fans of blue clothing in the open practice stand. Flagg and Knueppel traded jumps from the top of the 3-point arch. “He is obviously a fantastic player, but he’s an even better person outside the judgment, and you can’t say it about all who are as talented as he is,” Knuepel said before training. “You see media things, everyone surrounds him. I don’t envy anything that she has to do.”

Scheyer is interviewed in Midcourt and Flagg crashes behind him and waves into the camera. Only a child is a child.

It will be more than Saturday evening. After 18 years, three months and 16 days, his university basketball moment of truth came against the most feared defense of the division and in America. And Elite Freshman Mop Club waits to get a new member.



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