It looks like this year’s NCAA Tournament will be in Cooper Flagg’s future.
NCAA senior vice president of men’s basketball Dan Gavitt revealed Saturday that Flagg, 18, will be available for the Blue Devils ahead of March Madness.
“What we understand from communication with Duke and the ACC is that Cooper Flagg will be available for the NCAA tournament, so don’t expect that to impact their seeding,” Gavitt said during a CBS broadcast. “He is not the only significant injury. We’re tracking other injuries from other teams.
“Player availability is always a concern and a consideration and could potentially impact seeding, especially if a player is unavailable to play in the NCAA tournament.”
Flagg suffered an ankle injury during Duke’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal game against Georgia Tech and was forced to cheer from the sidelines in the Blue Devils’ 74-71 win over North Carolina on Friday.
Despite Flagg’s X-rays ultimately coming back negative, the ACC Player of the Year was ruled out for Saturday’s conference championship against Louisville.
Duke is also down junior Maliq Brown for the ACC title clash with a shoulder injury.
Head coach Jon Scheyer said the injury could keep Brown out for a significant amount of time.
Following Friday’s win over the Tar Heels, Scheyer told reporters that the team is working to make sure Flagg will be ready for March Madness.
“As far as [Flagg] goes, he’s doing better,” Scheyer said. “Sprained ankle. All the imaging came back negative. He sprained it pretty good, though. It’s a good sprain. I’m not breaking any news. He’s not going to play [in the ACC title game]. He can’t play. But our goal is to have him ready for the NCAA tournament. But we need to see how this weekend goes with the swelling and what he can do.”
Flagg is the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and the favorite to win the Wooden Award, given to the most outstanding college basketball players after each season.
