As No. 7 Duke gears up for what’s bound to be another eventful season, the debut for heralded freshman Cooper Flagg likely will be extra special.
That’s because he’ll be going up against his home-state team, Maine, in the Monday opener in Durham, N.C.
The Black Bears visit the Blue Devils in what shapes up as far from a routine first game of the season.
While Flagg might not take center stage during every game of the long season, he definitely will be for this contest.
“He’s a natural,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “He has great instincts. Then you add in his feel, he’s going to make some special plays. There’s so much there for him.”
Flagg’s reputation has made him well-known in college basketball circles even before his first official points are scored. In Maine, they know all about his talents.
“I do think there’s going to be a great buzz, an electric atmosphere,” Maine coach Chris Markwood said. “A lot of people from our state will be down there. A great opportunity for us.”
As a high school freshman in Maine, Flagg helped Nokomis Regional High School to the state Class A state championship, scoring 22 points and pulling down 16 rebounds against Falmouth High School in the state title contest.
The Maine-Duke matchup came about with Duke officials checking with Maine about interest in scheduling.
“Everybody up here in the state’s pulling for him and looking forward to what he’s doing on the next stage at Duke, hopefully just not on November 4,” Markwood said.
Flagg doesn’t need the extra attention; it’s already coming his way in heavy doses. He’s excited about this next step.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was young, playing college basketball,” he said, “and I dreamed about playing at Duke as well.”
Markwood is familiar with the 6-foot-7 Flagg — and vice versa.
“He grew up coming to games at Maine,” Markwood said. “(Their family members) know our school really well. … First and foremost he’s dynamic in transition. It’s going to be a hard task for us, a hard task for everybody.”
The Blue Devils have others who are capable of making highlights early in the season. Duke’s depth is so strong that junior guard Tyrese Proctor wasn’t in the starting lineup for one of the team’s two exhibition games.
“Our practices have been really, really crazy, and everyone competes really hard in practice, and that’s only going to make us better,” Proctor said.
Proctor and guard Caleb Foster each started more than half of the Blue Devils’ games last season. Scheyer said he’s still in the experimental stage in terms of lineups and player combinations on the court.
“We’re looking at different lineups, different rotations,” he said.
Duke, coming off a 27-9 (15-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) season, added Maliq Brown (from Syracuse), Mason Gillis (from Purdue) and Sion James (from Tulane) as transfers. Freshman Kon Knueppel’s shooting range is head-turning.
So the first game is just the foundation for the Blue Devils, who’ll have showdowns with Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas and Auburn across the first month of the season. They will try to better their appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last spring.
“The challenge for us is how can we grow as much as we possibly can and at the same time still be at our best for the moment,” Scheyer said. “Depending on the game and the situation, different guys can go off.”
Maine went 15-17 overall and 7-9 in America East action last season. The Black Bears also opened in the state of North Carolina in 2023-24, losing at Charlotte.
They return Kellen Tynes, whose 12.6 points per game last season were second on the team, and team assist leader (4.0) Jaden Clayton, who was third in scoring with 9.2 points per game.
