“Everybody else on Duke was horrific”: NCAA analyst gives his 2 cents on Cooper Flagg’s “most important” performance 

Duke Blue Devils swingman Cooper Flagg had another awe-inspiring performance to help his team win the ninth conference game of the season. The freshman posted a game-high 24 points on 8-for-16 shooting along with seven rebounds, six assists and a block in 39 minutes of play during their 63-56 win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday.

Flagg was the only player on coach Jon Scheyer's team who shot the basketball at an efficient rate during the ACC matchup, as starters Kon Knueppel and Tyrese Proctor shot just 5-for-12 and 2-for-12, respectively, with the whole team just amounting to a 36.8% clip overall, 28.1% from 3-point range and 70.6% from the charity stripe.

With the lowly shooting percentages for the No. 2 team in the nation, Flagg was deemed to have carried his squad to victory over their conference foe. In the latest episode of "The Field of 68: After Dark" podcast on Monday, host Rob Dauster – who had college basketball analysts John Fanta and Terrence Oglesby alongside him – detailed the Duke star's outing.

"Saturday was the most important performance we've seen from Cooper Flagg so far this year," Dauster said. "They go on the road, you're up by 13 at Wake Forest. You come out in the second half, a place where Wake has picked off a lot of big dogs in the past. You're playing a game that looks like it's being broadcasted in 1974. Everything is yellow in there.

"Everybody else on Duke was horrific for the first 14 minutes of that half. I think they were 0-for-17 from the floor and then Cooper Flagg was the only guy that made a shot in the first 14 minutes. [He] put that team on his back. They went to just ISO ball. They went to, 'Let's give it to Cooper, let him go take this thing home.'

"They were down by as many as seven in the second half after leading by 13 at halftime. He finished with 24 points, six boards [and] seven assists on the night where Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel in the second half didn't have it," he added.

(from 0:05 mark onwards)

With the stakes getting higher and higher for conference play, more performance such as from Flagg will not only help the Newport, Maine native's case to be the National Player of the Year and help his team to a deep run in March, but also add to his already stacked 2025 NBA draft stock.

For Rob Dauster, Cooper Flagg's performance is why Duke could win the national title this year

As the competition amongst all of the conferences heats up, it is clear that Cooper Flagg is a generational talent who is still standing out despite being in his first and likely only stint in college basketball. It takes a special kind of player to perform at an elite level given the circumstances, and this is why Rob Dauster feels that the Duke Blue Devils have a shot to win it all come March.

"That [performance] to me was everything about why Cooper Flagg is as good as he is, why he is in the Player of the Year conversation, and why Duke, right now, I think is probably looking like the favorite to win the national championship," Dauster said.

(from 1:03 mark onwards)

Duke returns to action on Monday to take on the NC State Wolfpack on the road looking to secure conference win No. 10, and 17th overall, with another standout performance from Cooper Flagg.