Cooper Flagg scored plenty. Why that wasn’t enough for Duke basketball in loss to Kentucky
Jon Scheyer intentionally added experienced transfers around Duke basketball’s solid freshmen last spring.
He wanted his Blue Devils to have an edge, particularly late in games when youth can show up in negative ways.
In Duke’s first serious test of the new season Tuesday night, Scheyer’s Blue Devils frittered away a nine-point second-half lead and lost 77-72 to No. 19 Kentucky in the Champions Classic at State Farm Arena.
In the game’s final four minutes, with Kentucky having finally clawed its way back to tie the score at the 3:57 mark, the Blue Devils looked young and not ready for such a big moment against a strong opponent.
Duke scored on just two of its final seven possessions, with freshman Cooper Flagg the only Blue Devil who scored in the game’s final six minutes. At the same time, three turnovers in the final two minutes marred what was an overall strong game that saw the 17-year-old forward score 26 points and grab 12 rebounds.
The turnovers were critical.
With 12 seconds left and the score tied at 72, Flagg lost the ball in the lane as Kentucky’s Otega Oweh stole the ball from him. That led to a Kentucky fast break where Oweh was fouled with 10.3 seconds to play. He made both free throws to put the Wildcats ahead for good.
As Duke looked for a game-tying basket, Flagg dribbled the ball off his foot, then slipped, and it skittered out of bounds with five seconds left.
With that, Duke was done.
After suffering from cramping severe enough to send him to the bench during the second half of Duke’s two wins last week, Flagg said he wished fatigue wasn’t a factor at the end of Tuesday night’s games.
But, it was.
“I wish I could say that I didn’t,” Flagg said, “but I definitely did a little bit. But I tried to fight through it as best I could.”
Scheyer knew that Kentucky knew the ball would be in Flagg’s hands on those plays. He was ok with that because he felt Flagg was Duke’s best chance to score. This time, it didn’t work out.
“It worked out, basically, every other time throughout the game to put us in that position,” Scheyer said.
What this exposes, though, is that Flagg needs support from that squad around him.
Flagg was the only Duke player to make a field goal over the final 10:21 seconds of play. The only other Blue Devil who scored during that stretch was Tyrese Proctor, who made two of three free throws after being fouled while shooting a 3-pointer at the 6:30 mark.
It didn’t help that 7-2 freshman Khaman Maluach was the Blue Devil dealing with cramps in this game. In his 23 minutes of play, Maluach scored 10 points with seven rebounds and two blocked shots.
But he left the game with 9:10 to play and, after receiving treatment, didn’t return until 3:57 remained. In that time, Duke went from six points up to tied.
Maluach played until 1:41 to play and left the game for good with Kentucky up 72-70. Duke never led again.
“I mean, look, it’s concerning,” Scheyer said. “I think part of it is, we have young bodies. I think that’s part of it. We’ve got to help these guys. Again, we’re not trying to just dip our toes in the water.”
No, Duke is not. Scheyer needs Flagg and Maluach to play major minutes. He needs them to not look tired, drained and limited late in games.
At the same time, a few more baskets by some of their capable teammates would have made a huge difference for Duke. The Blue Devils made just 4 of 23 3-pointers in the game.
Kon Knueppel was 5 of 20 from the field, hitting just 1 of 8 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Caleb Foster was 0 for 4 on 3-pointers while scoring just four points.
Those veteran transfers, Maliq Brown, Sion James and Mason Gillis, scored only six points between them while hitting 3 of 9 shots.
Part of that was James suffering a right shoulder injury that knocked him out of the game at the 12:48 mark. Duke held a 56-47 lead when James left the game for good.
“He took a hard hit on that screen, a hard hit,” Scheyer said. “And so we’ll get him back and get him evaluated and see. But obviously those two guys (Maluach and James) are really important to us.”
They and the rest of Duke’s eight-man player rotation, beyond Flagg, remain important and Tuesday night was another example.
Scheyer walked away feeling confident in what he saw from his Blue Devils.
“We’ve got a long season ago,” Scheyer said. “I feel more optimistic tonight losing than I did even before, because you find out in this game the character of your team. The heart that they have. This team’s got a lot of heart.”
What Duke didn’t have was the key plays at winning time in the final four minutes. In the coming weeks, the Blue Devils will have more games where those plays will be necessary, with upcoming games at No. 9 Arizona, against No. 1 Kansas in Las Vegas and at home with No. 5 Auburn.
This roster was put together to make those plays. Until the Blue Devils do it, it will be fair to wonder when they will to give the program the kind of season it seeks.