NCAA analyst details why Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper standout above Ace Bailey, VJ Edgecombe and Liam McNeeley
The battle of being the best freshman in college basketball between Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper, VJ Edgecombe, and Liam McNeeley will rage on throughout the 2024-25 season. But one basketball analyst shared his stance on the two players he believes stand out from the group.
In a new episode of the "DTF Podcast" on Tuesday, analyst Rob Dauster gave his thoughts on the debate regarding the aforementioned star freshmen. He named Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper as his two best players, but he believes the gap between the two is closer than some might imagine.
"I can't get past that Dylan Harper's kind of young for his age, right? He's born in March of 2006, so he will turn 19 during the NCAA tournament, or actually more likely during the Big 10 tournament. He turns 19 in March.
"Cooper Flagg is not even 18 years old, yet he will turn 18 years old four days from today, Dec. 21. It's the age thing. Like the 17 to 21 is when you do the most development as a basketball player. And I think that he is just scratching the surface of what he can be," Dauster said.
"I understand why people are enamored with Ace Bailey and, like, VJ Edgecombe and has been fun, and Liam McNeeley has been awesome. And there's, like, a whole bunch of really good freshmen here, but like, I think it's those two.
"And then you kind of have to figure it out from there, just, it's so easy to look at what Dylan Harper does and project that to the NBA and see all these guys that are super productive that you build teams around at that level, and to see what he can do," he added.
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Cooper Flagg is raising attention from NBA execs
As the top prospect in the Class of 2024, Flagg has garnered plenty of attention from NBA teams, especially team scouts and executives.
According to ESPN's Jeremy Woo, Flagg is anticipated to remain the projected top pick of the 2025 NBA draft class. Woo spoke to 10 NBA general managers, executives and scouts about their thoughts on Flagg, which turned out to garner high reviews for the Duke freshman.
"One Eastern Conference scout projected Flagg's chances of going No. 1 at 90 percent," Woo said.
"There's not many guys with a combination of size, mobility, skill and basketball IQ," another veteran scout told Woo. "A lot of high-level prospects have two or three [of those traits] ... he has all of them."
Based on how Flagg has performed this season, they would not be wrong in their assessments. After 10 games, he is averaging 15.9 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks on 42.9% shooting from the field and 22.2% from beyond the arc.
His displays have played a huge role in Duke's 9-2 start on the season, currently ranked fifth in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. They are averaging 79.7 ppg on 46.3% shooting from the field and 35.2% from downtown. On defense, they are conceding 59.9 ppg to their opponents on 36.2% shooting overall and 29.3% from 3.
After tonight's victory against George Mason, Cooper Flagg and No. 5 Duke will look to continue their winning ways against Georgia Tech at Hank McCamish Pavilion on Saturday at noon ET.
Do you think Cooper Flagg is the best freshman men's basketball player this season? Is he the locked-in No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 draft? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.