Duke HC Jon Scheyer lauds "mature" freshmen Cooper Flagg, Kon Kneuppel and more amid Final Four run

NCAA Basketball: Final Four-Duke Practice - Source: Imagn

Duke are having a stellar season, and this has been largely due to the performance of their freshmen, who have been repeatedly praised by coach Jon Scheyer.

This season’s recruitment will go down as one of the best in the history of the Blue Devils, with the program successfully bringing in four five-star recruits. These are Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach and Isaiah Evans.

Speaking ahead of the Final Four showdown with the Houston Cougars, the coach once again lauded the freshmen when he asked about what helped his squad get to this stage.

"We have great leadership on this team,” Scheyer said, before switching to acknowledge what the recruits have done. “Our freshmen have been incredibly mature, wanting to learn and then we've had great connectivity from Day 1."

Expand Tweet

Duke won the ACC regular season and the conference tournament titles, while they are also in the Final Four, with a shot at winning the NCAA Tournament.

Flagg was named the AP National Player of the Year on Thursday, becoming only the fourth freshman in history to win the award. The 18-year-old has been the main driver behind the team this season, leading in points (18.9), rebounds (7.5), assists (4.2) and steals (1.4) per game.

Another freshman, Knueppel, is second on the team for points per game (14.4), while he has also contributed 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

Maluach has averaged 8.7 points per game, while he is only behind Flagg for rebounds per game (6.8).

Evans has played the least amount of games among these five-star recruits, averaging 7.0 points per game, with 1.2 average rebounds to go along.

Jon Scheyer talks preparation for Houston

The Cougars have the best defense in the country and are known for their physicality and toughness. Scheyer knows all about this, and he has revealed the plan to stop them.

“In order to prepare for a team that is physical and tough, you have to be that yourself,” Scheyer said.

Tipoff for the clash between Duke and Houston is 8:49 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 5.

About the author

Babatunde Kolawole is a college sports journalist at Sportskeeda with over eight years of experience in the field with Canoncrested.com, Garbersports.com, LiveScore Bet Nigeria and Pulse Sports Nigeria.

Kolawole studied Agricultural Economics on the tertiary level but delved into sports writing after school. Over half a decade later, the experience garnered helped him land this role.

Historically, the Alabama Crimson Tide stands out as Kolawole's favorite team as he was drawn to their rich history.

As for basketball, JuJu Watkins is Kolawole's favorite current player due to how much diversity she has in her game, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gets the nod for past players because of how he dominated with UCLA.

Kolawole has appeared on several TV and Radio shows as a guest analyst, and in his spare time, likes to watch movies (a sucker for the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and listen to a lot of music. He also loves to travel.

Know More

Dawn Staley, Geno Auriemma, or Kim Mulkey - who is NCAAW's highest-paid coach? Find out here

Edited by Akshay Saraswat