David Hale
Charlotte, North Carolina – No Cooper Flag. It’s fine for the first Duke. This won the ACC Tournament Championship in a 73-62 victory over Louisville on Saturday night.
Flag’s first half ankle injury at Blue Devils’ tournament opener against Georgia Tech became the biggest storyline surrounding the expected NCAA Tournament 1 seed, but the Blue Devils’ depth provided greater narrative thrust. Duke erased a five-point halftime deficit on Saturday night, dominating the second half defense to snap Louisville’s 11-game winning streak.
“We’re talking a lot about our toughness as a team,” Kaman Mallach Centre said. “It says a lot about other people who stepped up in a big moment.”
When coach John Shayer accepted the tournament championship trophy, Flag stood at the back of the stage holding the “ACC Champion” form placard. He cheered from the loud crowd and climbed the ladder to cut net share. But beyond that, Flag’s total contribution to Duke’s three wins at Charlotte was two points in 15 minutes of action.
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That should change as Duke focuses on the NCAA Tournament.
Shayer had admitted that there was little point in pushing the flag back to court for the ACC tournament after a “good sprain” in his ankle in Thursday’s victory over Georgia Tech. The X-rays have returned to negative, and Shayer says he has seen real progress in his flag recovery throughout the weekend. Flag didn’t walk prominently at the post-match celebrations, but he didn’t experience any pre-match warmups either on Saturday.
Duke confirms to the NCAA Select Committee that Flagg’s injuries are not serious and fully hopes to alleviate concerns about the Blue Devils seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“I don’t know who said that,” Shayer said after Saturday’s victory. “I didn’t say that directly, but that’s exactly my intention. It’s trending in a great way that Cooper is ready to go straight to the NCAA tournament.”
With no Flagg in the last three games, it was Duke’s other two projection lottery picks from the freshman class who handled the business. Kon Knueppel earned tournament MVP honors, scoring 18 points on eight rebounds in his victory over the Cardinals on Saturday. Mallach was a defensive force throughout the tournament run, and he was probably the biggest factor in suppressing Louisville’s offense later in the title game. Mallach finished Saturday with eight points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. He won a total of 28 boards and 8 blocks in three tournament games.
“I watch it every day, and I know how valuable they are,” Shayer said. “But you need to step up to do more. Cooper does so much for us. Kon was really our go-to guy. To see the versatility of others like Kaman. But I don’t need to do anything special to them. You don’t need to really do well.
However, if there were questions about Flagg’s true impact, the fact that Duke held the trophy at the end of this tournament was less visible than how it happened. In the regular season, Duke won 13 of 20 ACC games with 20 points or more. In Charlotte, they had to drag Georgia Tech in half and blow a nearly big lead over North Carolina, and return from the halftime deficit against Louisville on Saturday.
Flagg wasn’t different, but he provided a healthy margin. He said learning to live without it could be important as the Blue Devils move on to their next bigger goal.
“We’ve been approaching all year round. “To test these last three games as we have, we’ll learn a ton from that.
