Cooper Flagg Excites CBB Followers in Duke Debut as Kon Knueppel, Blue Devils Beat Maine

Cooper Flagg and the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils males’s basketball staff began the 2024-25 marketing campaign with a win.

Duke defeated the Maine Black Bears 96-62 in Monday’s season-opening showdown at Cameron Indoor Stadium. All eyes have been on the freshman, and he opened his extremely anticipated season with 18 factors, seven rebounds, 5 assists and three steals whereas serving to lead his staff to an easy victory.

He wasn’t the one one who performed properly, as Kon Knueppel spearheaded the scoring efforts with 22 factors, 4 rebounds, two assists and one steal.

But it surely was Flagg who drew probably the most response on social media, particularly after he threw down fairly the dunk:

The sport was a blowout as anticipated, but it surely was nonetheless the primary likelihood for faculty basketball and NBA followers to see Flagg in motion. The No. 1 total recruit within the class of 2024, per 247Sports’ composite rankings, is likely one of the most-hyped freshmen in years and will probably be appointment viewing each time he takes the court docket.

Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman projected Flagg because the No. 1 total decide in his newest mock draft, noting that the 17-year-old “has been thought-about one of many larger prizes of the last decade.”

His presence is a significant purpose expectations are as soon as once more so excessive for the powerhouse Blue Devils after they reached the Elite Eight final season, and Monday’s sport was a possibility to set the tone in opposition to an overmatched opponent.

But it was Knueppel who did simply that by pouring in 15 factors within the first half alone, 4 of which got here on a four-point play when he was fouled past the arc. With Maine focusing loads of defensive consideration on Flagg, he was capable of make the most of open appears to be like and anchor the offense for stretches.

Flagg definitely had his moments within the first half as properly, together with when he unleashed the monster tomahawk jam to fireside up the gang. He adopted that with an help on a Sion James three and a reverse layup to push the result in 11 by intermission.

The sport was by no means doubtful, and Duke wasted no time pulling away within the second half with Flagg doing somewhat little bit of all the pieces. Even when he wasn’t the staff’s go-to scorer, he was facilitating, battling for boards and taking part in lockdown protection as the perfect two-way participant on the ground.

It’s a method that ought to result in loads of wins in what figures to be his solely collegiate season, particularly if Knueppel proves to be the scoring menace he was Monday. Maine had no solutions for the 2 freshmen, and it is not troublesome to examine them main the Blue Devils to loads of success.

They’ll look to proceed the early momentum Friday after they face Military.