Duke’s Cooper Flagg became just the fourth freshman to be named the Associated Press men’s college basketball national player of the year, on Friday. He took 41 of the 61 votes cast, with the remainder going to Auburn center Johni Broome.
Flagg, 18, is the eighth Blue Devil to win the award, adding to Duke’s distinction as the team whose players have won the honor more than any other. The last Duke winner was Zion Williamson, who also won the award as a freshman in 2019. Kentucky’s Anthony Davis and Texas’ Kevin Durant are the only other freshman winners.
Flagg, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound forward from Newport, Maine, leads Duke in scoring, with an average of 18.9 points per game. He also leads the team in rebounding (7.5), assists (4.2) and steals (1.4). His team will compete in Saturday’s national semifinal against Houston. Both squads were the top seeds in their conferences.
For most of this season, Flagg and Broome were neck-and-neck in terms of being considered the best player in the country. Broome’s dominance in the SEC — which eventually sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament — was a major factor in his favor, while Flagg beating up on the lowly ACC was considered a knock.
But when Broome went down with an ankle injury midway through January, it gave Flagg the opportunity to take pole position — which he immediately did. His 42-point outburst against Notre Dame, which set the ACC single-game freshman scoring record, proved that Flagg was capable of otherworldly efforts, regardless of who they came against.
By the time Broome returned, Flagg had found his 3-point shot and became as good offensively as he had been defensively. That two-way impact is ultimately what separated Flagg, and what has made him the clear best player in America for most of the last two months.
(Photo by Eric Gay / AP)