“Cooper Flagg is absurdly overrated”: College hoops fans react as NCAAB analyst Jay Bilas lists reasons for Duke’s loss vs Kentucky
College basketball analyst Jay Bilas listed age and experience as the key factors in Kentucky's 77-72 win duke-chokes-kentucky-game" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">against Cooper Flagg and Duke on Tuesday. Highlighting that the Wildcats' youngest player is older than the Blue Devil's oldest player, he commended the Cats' ability to bounce back late in the second half.
Duke led the majority of the game in the State Farm Champions Classic in Atlanta. However, the Wildcats stormed back with heightened effort on the glass and on defense, turning the game around in the final minutes.
Fans stormed the comment section with their take on the matchup:
"Reasons Kentucky beat Duke: 1. Duke's not that good. 2. Duke's not that good. 3. Duke's not that good. 4 Cooper Flagg is absurdly overrated. 5. Duke's not that good.," a fan wrote.
"They also beat them with Maluaach going down for 6 min in the second half….and Sion James too …along with the 4-22," another fan commented.
"Lol we all saw what happen Jay. Duke beat Duke.," another fan wrote.
More fans chimed in, blaming the loss on Cooper Flagg, coach Jon Scheyer and Duke's inability to retain the lead in the final minutes:
"Scheyer did a terrible job in the last 4-5 minutes. He put the ball in Flagg’s hands on every possession. Kentucky saw it and doubled and tripled him so he turned it over, took bad shots couldn’t even pass the ball. 5 Duke players and on the floor but you would have sworn there was only one. A 17 year old kid being asked to defeat a good Kentucky team in crunch time. Lousy coaching.," a fan commented.
"Kentucky beat Duke because Duke shot 4/22 from three. Nothing more nothing less.," another fan wrote.
"Same excuse every time.. coaching the last 2 minutes didn’t help," another fan wrote.
Cooper Flagg's performance against Kentucky
Cooper Flagg finished with a game-high 26 points and 12 rebounds. He scored the first points of the game with a weakside lob by Caleb Foster, sparking Duke’s efficient half. He posted 12 points, going 4 of 7, as the Blue Devils led 46-37 at halftime. He also helped erase Kentucky’s impact from the long range as the Wildcats made their first four 3-pointers of the game.
Duke struggled heavily in the second half, going through multiple scoreless runs. As Kentucky closed the gap, Flagg singlehandedly scored 12 of his team’s last 14 points in the last 10:21 minutes.
Cooper Flagg made several game-altering mistakes. All of his three turnovers came in the last two minutes. The biggest ones came in the final seconds when Otega Oweh stripped him and converted two points off the free throw line. With 5 seconds on the clock, Flagg accidentally stepped out of bounds, eliminating Duke’s chances of tying/winning the close contest.