The entire college basketball world has been holding its breath since Thursday night, when an ankle injury knocked star Duke freshman Cooper Flagg out of the Blue Devils' ACC quarterfinal matchup against Georgia Tech. Flagg avoided any structural damage, diagnosed instead with an ankle sprain. But he was quickly ruled out for the rest of the conference tournament, leaving his status for the Big Dance very much up in the air as we approach Selection Sunday.
We got a little bit more clarity on that status on Saturday afternoon, as word broke that both Duke and the ACC had indicated to the selection committee that the do-everything freshman would in fact be available for the NCAA Tournament.
Dan Gavitt just said on CBS that Duke/the ACC have communicated to the selection committee that Cooper Flagg will be available for the NCAA tournament.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) March 15, 2025
Which is undoubtedly good news, and could well indicate that Flagg dodged a bullet and is dealing with only a minor sprain that will allow him to get back on the court in a matter of days. But the politics at play here also mean that we won't quite be sure how Flagg is doing until we actually see him back in action.
Is Duke playing games with Cooper Flagg's health ahead of NCAA Tournament?
Regardless of how Flagg is actually doing right now, it behooves Duke to at least present as though he'll be a factor for the team moving forward. Unless his injury were so severe that he had already been ruled out for the rest of the season, the Blue Devils had every reason to string this along, refusing to let any uncertainty around its best player potentially affect its standing with the selection committee.
With Flagg, Duke had a strong claim for the No. 1 overall seed in the tourney, especially given Auburn's loss to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinals. Flagg has been everything we could've hoped for and more, stepping onto campus as one of the best defenders in the country and developing a more well-rounded offensive game with each passing week. Duke rolled through the regular season at 28-3 overall, 19-1 in conference and No. 1 in KenPom's efficiency rankings.
Without him, though, we don't know exactly what the Blue Devils' ceiling is. Sure, there's still plenty of talent here, as we saw in a rollicking first half of the ACC Tournament semis against UNC. But they also nearly blew a huge lead to the Tar Heels, and losing a player like Flagg has profound downstream effects on the entire roster. It would be fair for the selection committee to look at things a bit differently if it had reason to think he'd miss, say, the first weekend of the tournament.
Duke wants to shut down that speculation right away, and it can reasonably do so without making any claims as to how much or how effectively Flagg will be able to play. Maybe he's doing just fine; maybe he'll be hobbled. We simply don't know, and nothing the Blue Devils will tell us before next week will remove all doubt.