Cooper Flagg looked to make his one, and possibly only, ACC Tournament a memorable one. Unfortunately, he went down with an ankle injury against Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals.
Flagg, the ACC Player and Rookie of the Year, said that it was just a run of the mill rebound attempt, and he landed wrong.
“Just kind of went up for a rebound, kind of came down and landed on the player’s foot and twisted my ankle,” Flagg said on Thursday. “[I have] twisted my ankle a good amount of times. Growing up, I feel like most basketball players go through something like that.”
It was that mindset that kept him calm in the immediate aftermath as he tried to walk it off before heading to the back.
Losing their top weapon in Charlotte was not ideal for Duke, but coach Jon Scheyer looked at it as an opportunity for the team to show off their toughness during a critical stretch.
“The Georgia Tech game, we’re down, we’re playing horrible, they’re playing really well,” Scheyer said. “But for our other guys to step up in close games to make big-time winning plays, I think that just gave us even more confidence with what we can do getting him back healthy and ready to go at the same time.”
That sentiment reverberated through the team, with freshman Kon Knuppel said this opportunity has some possibilities in future games.
Rd 1 Big Dance presser ✅ pic.twitter.com/hyXnHoPEXh
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 20, 2025
“Yeah, I think it gave some guys some opportunities but also helped us unlock some things offensively and defensively that might work in the future,” Knuppel said.
This is something that the Mountaineers of Mount St. Mary’s will have to prepare for. Coach Donny Lind talked about their biggest challenge against Duke.
“Their size and athleticism jumps off the page when you watch them,” Lind said. “Certainly, they protect the rim defensively as good as anybody in the country, if not better. So, scoring around the rim is super important for any team. If we’re going to score enough points to win, we’re going to have to get some baskets around the rim.”
But, according to Flagg, both the X-Rays and MRIs came back good, and he was able to get cleared on Thursday to play in the first round.
“From the start of the week, it was kind of like a build-up of jumping back into practice, getting back to a hundred percent, doing some individual things with some of the coaches on the side,” Flagg said “Then I was back at full practice yesterday. So, I feel really good, I’m really confident about going 100 percent tomorrow.”
Flagg was not going to see the court if there were any lingering issues with the ankle.
“He wasn’t going to play if he was compensating or if he was — look, no matter what, an ankle sprain, to say he’s 100 percent tomorrow, he has to work through that a little bit still,” Scheyer said.
The Blue Devils will still be without Maliq Brown, who also went down with an injury during the Georgia Tech game, as Scheyer could not give a timeline on when he would be cleared.
Tip-off on Friday is set for approximately 2:50 p.m. and will be airing on CBS.