Cooper Flagg greeted like a hero at Duke’s Countdown to Craziness

By ADAM ZAGORIA

Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 high school prospect in the Class of 2024, was greeted like a hero during his appearance Friday night at Duke’s “Countdown to Craziness.”

Flagg, a senior forward at Montverde (FL) Academy, was at Duke’s Midnight Madness event with fellow five-star prospects V.J. Edgecombe of Long Island Lutheran (NY) and Pat Ngongba of Paul VI (VA).

Flagg entered Cameron Indoor Stadium amidst a sea of students cheering and filming him. He dapped up the Crazies on a walk around the court’s perimeter. And he sang with students while standing amongst them in the stands.

Cooper Flagg pulled up to Duke’s countdown to Craziness👀 pic.twitter.com/sfqufdtbhf

— B/R Hoops (@brhoops) October 20, 2023

The 6-foot-8 Flagg canceled a scheduled visit to Kansas following his UConn visit earlier this month and is down to Duke and Connecticut. The NCAA early signing period runs Nov. 8-15.

“Unless he’s unbelievably confused, I’m pretty sure he’s going to make a decision very quickly after he visits Duke,” Kelly Flagg, Cooper’s mother, told The Messenger. “That way, he can put it behind him and focus on what he needs to do to get better.”

Cooper Flagg answers the call from the Cameron Crazies! pic.twitter.com/2E18OJlFNv

— Matt Giles (@MattGilesBD) October 21, 2023

Flagg, who could be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has called Duke his “dream school,” and his Crystal Ball on the recruiting site 247Sports.com is 100% in favor of the Blue Devils.

“Dream school obviously but there’s still so many more options that I want to look into and everything like that,” Flagg told ZAGSBLOG in January at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass.

Cooper Flagg is going to Duke and everyone needs to accept that pic.twitter.com/gD3jLXgiTI

— Marty Mush (@martymush) October 21, 2023

The night started with each player on the Duke women’s basketball team being introduced to fans, head coach Kara Lawson addressing the crowd and the team playing an eight-minute scrimmage.

The men’s team was next up for player introductions, followed by second-year head coach Jon Scheyer. The Blue Devils, ranked No. 2 in the AP preseason poll, then played a 16-minute scrimmage, with the White team winning, 33-18, led by Jeremy Roach, who scored 12 total points.

“Thanks for everybody for being here,” Scheyer said. “Countdown to Craziness, these events, I never want us to take these things for granted. It is such a great turnout by our students, by our fans, and I met a few people that came from way across country and it’s one of the only times they have been able to come into Cameron.

“Our team behind the scenes, the job that they did to pull this off was incredible: for our guys to have some fun playing in front of a crowd. The White group did a great job sharing the ball and had some fun plays. I just thought it was a fun night, a special night celebrating Duke and really kicking the season off. We have a lot of work to do and a lot of things to worry about. Tonight was to enjoy this one and for our team to have some fun was a great thing.”

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