The Blue Devils want to make sure the conference’s award voters know how valuable its superstar has been
Cooper Flagg is going to win the ACC Player of the Year and the Rookie of the Year Awards but the Duke basketball team is campaigning for him to sweep the three major individual honors later this month.
Entering college, the most underestimated component of Flagg’s game has been his defense and it has continued to go unrecognized throughout his freshman season with the Blue Devils because of how outstanding he is on the offensive side of the court, but the Duke social media staff has his back.
On Thursday, the program made two posts highlighting Flagg’s defense, one noting that he has the best defensive rating among ACC players – five Blue Devils are in the top seven – as well as his individual defensive stats.
FYI voters of ACC defense awards
The conversation began when college basketball pundit Terrence Oglesby shared his ACC honors ballot on social media, which included Flagg for Player and Rookie of the Year but saw Clemson’s Jaeden Zackery earn Defensive Player of the Year.
“Flagg is incredible and the analytics are going to favor him but I’ve never seen a dude” cut off the water “like Zackery does on a nightly basis,” he commented.
Oglesby claimed Zackery, Flagg, and Louisville’s Chucky Hepburn finished in that order for the honor, but he did include Sion James and Khaman Maluach on his All-Defense Team.
It’s not the first time this week that the Blue Devils social media group has supported Cooper Flagg for an award, as they pushed for the rookie to win National Player of the Year over Johni Broom, and Flagg has now become the betting favorite once more.
In his past two games, Flagg scored 22.0 points per game, whereas Broome averaged only 8.5 points per game for Auburn. The difference between the two players is so narrow that the favorite could change from game to game.
Cooper Flagg and the No. 2 Blue Devils will try to finish the season strong on the road against rival North Carolina on Saturday (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
