With Cooper Flagg in foul trouble, how Duke avoided disaster to rally past Louisville
With a generational talent like Cooper Flagg in its lineup, Duke naturally centers plenty of its offense and defense around the 6-9 freshman.
Don’t mistake that for tacit acknowledgment the Blue Devils can’t win without Flagg.
The first example of this basketball season came Sunday night at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center, where the short-handed Cardinals built a 14-point lead early, and led by five points when Flagg hit the bench with four fouls in the second half.
Ten minutes, 36 seconds remained and, for the first time this season, Duke stared down the necessity of a Flagg-less rally.
The Blue Devils didn’t blink, scoring 18 of the game’s next 20 points to forge ahead and post a 76-65 win over the Cardinals in the teams’ ACC opener.
“This team is way more than one player,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “It’s way more than just a couple of players.”
To be clear, Flagg finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds in 28 minutes, and did not turn the ball over. That’s production befitting his preseason all-American status.
But it’s what happened without him on the court, during a key second-half stretch when Duke finally took the lead over the spunky Cardinals for good, that shows plenty about how good this Blue Devils team is.
When Flagg left the game with 10:36 left, Louisville led 55-50. Duke had trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and had not led since the game was less than two minutes old.
Scheyer inserted reserve forward Mason Gillis to play with junior guard Tyrese Proctor, graduate transfer Sion James, junior forward Maliq Brown and freshman Kon Knueppel.
Duke was without its best player, but it suddenly had an experienced college basketball team on the court.
During the 18-2 run that followed over the game’s next five minutes, four of those players scored. That’s all but Gillis. But don’t think the Purdue transfer was invisible.
“I feel like it was all for Mason,” Brown said. “He came in and set the tone, told us, you know, we’ve got to get locked in and just get a stop.”
In a game where Duke hit just 8 of 30 3-pointers (26.7%), Knueppel hadn’t made a 3-pointer all night. But his first shot after Flagg left the game swished through the net to ignite the rally.
On back-to-back possessions, with a Louisville turnover thanks to a Brown steal in between, James drove the lane for a slam dunk to tie the game, then drew a foul and hit two free throws to give Duke a 57-55 lead with 8:46 to play.
After Louisville tied it, Duke ripped off 11 more points in a row with Brown hitting three baskets in the lane (two on dunks), Proctor driving for a basket and Knueppel hitting another 3-pointer to give Duke a 68-57 lead with 5:42 left.
Flagg re-entered the game with 4:42 left and his basket at 4:25 left Duke up 70-60.
That was lights out for Louisville.
“Gotta trust the work,” Proctor said. “We’re a deep team. Coop provides a lot of offensive and defensive benefits for us. But we’re not a one man team, and it’s next man up.”
Though Flagg led the Blue Devils in scoring and rebounding once again, Proctor scored 13 points, Knueppel 12 and James 11. Brown snagged 11 rebounds.
So Duke not only won its first ACC road game, it did so while also learning that Flagg on the bench does not mean certain doom. That was true even on the road, even in the second half and even while trailing.
Scheyer said when he first removed Flagg, he intended for it only to be for a few minutes. His predecessor, Mike Krzyzewski, used to do the same thing with foul situations.
“I’ve grown up under the Coach K philosophy of playing your guys when they get fouls,” Scheyer said. “That doesn’t really faze us.”
But he also planned to see how his team looked without Flagg. As long as things were going reasonably well, Flagg would stay out. Things went much better than reasonably well.
“I had complete trust in Mason in that moment,” Scheyer said. “The value of our team is we have more than five guys that can play, more than five guys that can even start. Mason came in and Kon really stepped up in that moment. I thought Tyrese and Sion just kept us steady. And obviously I mentioned the plays already with Maliq.”
Wednesday’s comeback against No. 2 Auburn to post an 84-78 win was important for Duke to show it could beat one of the nation’s best teams. That’s needed confidence come NCAA tournament time.
Sunday’s win at Louisville came against a team that, due to unfortunate injuries, isn’t likely to be an NCAA tournament team this season. But it was just as important to Duke because it showed the depth and talent Scheyer has at his disposal.
Duke got over a major hurdle, on the road and made winning plays without Flagg.
The Blue Devils never want to be there again, but if they are, they know they can handle it.
This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 6:00 AM.