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Cooper Flagg is box office. Even if it’s against perennial NBA All-Stars, the 18-year-old freshman is the main attraction anytime he plays basketball.

It’s why Syracuse, which has consistently struggled to fill the JMA Wireless Dome amid a disappointing second year under Adrian Autry, had 23,313 fans in attendance Wednesday night — the largest in the country this season.

Highlight-oozing dunks, as he had midway through the second half after evading Naheem McLeod before driving ferociously down the baseline, are typical. Three-point makes are expected. And stout defense is the standard.

Though Flagg was held to 11 points (4-of-7 from the field), five rebounds and two assists versus SU (10-13, 4-8 Atlantic Coast), No. 2 Duke (20-2, 12-0 Atlantic Coast) cruised to an 83-54 win over it. It was the fourth time the projected No. 1 2025 NBA Draft pick, who entered the game as the odds-on favorite to win the Wooden Award, was held under a dozen points this season; the Blue Devils have won all four of those games. Unlike Syracuse, Duke is built to win even when its best player doesn’t dominate.

“We wanted to kind of make him work, push him out,” Autry said postgame. “And when he caught the ball, he didn’t see a lot of driving lanes, kind of get him to settle and make some pull-up 2s and some things like that. He did. He made some, that was kind of what we wanted to do.”

Following an upset loss to NC State in the Elite Eight last season, the Blue Devils underwent a significant roster shakeup. Seven players entered the transfer portal while leading scorers Jared McCain and Kyle Filipowski were selected in the NBA Draft.

Despite having the incoming top recruiting class in the nation, led by top-ranked Flagg, the Blue Devils hit the portal hard, something they’d yet to do since its emergence. That started by bringing in SU transfer Maliq Brown alongside Mason Gillis and Sion James.

Brown leaving the Orange was a domino effect of changing dynamics throughout his two-year stint. He became one of eight players to depart from Syracuse following last season. To fill its voids, SU acquired Eddie Lampkin Jr., Jaquan Carlos and Jyáre Davis from the portal while it added freshmen Donnie Freeman and Elijah Moore.

Yet that hasn’t been enough to support J.J. Starling. In games where Starling scores 12 or fewer points, SU is 2-4. Meanwhile, the Orange went 2-5 when Starling missed time with a broken left hand.

Simply put, Syracuse can’t win without Starling’s scoring. Against the Blue Devils, he was held to 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting. Duke, on the other hand, has a perfect supporting cast around Flagg and it can, at times, easily win without him dominating.

“Coop’s not just a scorer,” Duke guard Tyrese Proctor, who scored a game-high 16 points, said. “He plays however he needs to and however we need him to. And, we have such a good team. It’s not just on one guy to come out and drop 40 every game.”

Cooper Flagg waits for his teammates to catch up as he dribbles past midcourt in Duke’s decimation of Syracuse. Flagg totaled 11 points on a tied-for-season-low seven shot attempts versus SU. Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor

Against SU, which is fighting for a spot in the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils didn’t need Flagg to do much. By the time the 6-foot-9 forward attempted his first shot of a tied-for-season low seven field goal attempts, Duke already controlled a lead it never relinquished.

For good measure, the freshman canned his only 3-point attempt of the game, giving the Blue Devils an 11-7 lead six-and-a-half minutes into the contest.

“He’s great with it. I’m not great with it,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said of Flagg’s seven shots. “I want him to take more but he’s great with it because he loves the fact he won.”

While it took nearly five more minutes for Flagg to attempt his second shot — a mid-range miss — he had a defensive highlight sandwiched in between. As Petar Majstorovic set a screen on Proctor, Flagg stepped up to guard Starling at the top of the key.

Starling maneuvered to the right wing and attempted a pull-up 3, but Flagg’s 7-foot wingspan deflected the ball before Proctor corralled it. That led to a James triple midway through the half, extending the Blue Devils’ lead to 20-9.

Duke finished with Proctor (16), Kon Knueppel (12), Flagg (11), Isaiah Evans (10) and James (10) all scoring in double figures. Starling (12), Davis (12) and McLeod (10) were the Orange’s only players to score 10 or more points.

Despite Flagg entering halftime with seven points, well off-pace from his season average of 20.0 entering the contest, SU trailed 37-23. The forward made 2-of-4 first-half field goals while adding two points from the charity stripe.

“Honestly, I think we did a really good job on him tonight, he’s not as aggressive as I thought he was, but I think he plays the game really well. He plays it the right way. He’s unselfish,” Chris Bell said of Flagg. “I think we did a good job of just containing him and then making him be a passer for sure.”

Though the second half was much like the first, with Flagg taking only three shots, the Blue Devils ran away with the game.

One of the freshman’s best sequences of the night came four minutes into the second half. With Duke leading 42-27, Flagg corralled the ball on the right wing guarded by Davis. Upon receiving a pass from James, he penetrated the lane before faking a spin to create space. With just enough separation, he drained a contested jumper over Davis in the paint.

“He’s obviously a generational talent. He had his own game plan, and I feel like for the most part, we did a good job of limiting what he did,” Starling said of Flagg. “But at the end of the day, with players like that, they’re gonna get theirs regardless.”

After the Blue Devils forced a Lampkin turnover on the ensuing possession, Flagg waited in transition for Brown to get down the court so they’d have a three-on-two. As Brown caught up, Flagg bounced a no-look pass to the forward, who was fouled on his shot attempt.

“Tonight, he just had some great passes that didn’t even lead to assists, I thought, but it just led to somebody else getting the shot,” Scheyer said.

That was the story of the night for Flagg. He didn’t do much, but he made winning plays. One wouldn’t have known he was possibly the best American-born prospect since LeBron James if this was the only time you’d seen him play. But for a team as talented as Duke, it doesn’t need Flagg to be Superman every game to hand teams like Syracuse its worst loss of the season.

Published on February 6, 2025 at 1:03 am

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon