College basketball insider shares concern over Cooper Flagg led Duke for the 2024 college basketball season
Jon Scheyer's Duke will enter the 2024-25 season led by freshman Cooper Flagg. The team has been built around the 17-year-old forward, but many are concerned about Flagg's ability to lead the group.
On "The Field of 68" podcast, analysts Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman discussed their concerns about the program.
"We can't build teams around freshmen, especially in the age of COVID players where you got guys that are 6 or 7 years older," said Dauster.
"My biggest, I don't wanna say it was a concern like, but the thing that I'm trying to, set the expectation a little bit lower for myself is that I wanted to see what would happen when you got a kid that doesn't turn 18 until, I think its December 21, I believe. If he was born 10 days later, he would not be eligible for the 2025 NBA Draft."
Jeff Goodman replied:
"He isn't a typical freshman, we know that."
Flagg has shown a lot more promise than a typical freshman and Dauster agreed. He replied:
"I know but it's still a freshman. But what I will say is that I think watching that scrimmage, seeing where he's improved his actual game, and knowing that [Jon] Scheyer has put a team around him, that will make him so that he doesn't have to do everything himself and will take some off that load off him. I'm getting more and more bullish on Duke as we talk about it.
"We have Cooper Flagg as a second-team All-American when we put out our early pre-season All-American teams, I think in June, and when we do this again in November, I'm changing that," he added.
Cooper Flagg surprises while playing for the Select Team
Cooper Flagg was invited to play for the Select Team against Team USA. He was seen going past Jrue Holiday and then scoring a 3-pointer over Anthony Davis.
The amazing sequence was recorded and posted on social media where it went viral. It left hoops fans discussing Flagg's potential to be on the USA Basketball team and whether he's ready for the NBA.