Doesn’t mean much compared to the expectations, but it’s bound to feel good for young Flagg.
Cooper Flagg is a big part of the future of Duke Basketball, the most promising recruit Jon Scheyer has landed in his first three classes, and like everyone else, he’s going to be watching the Duke-UNC game Saturday evening.
But he’ll have to wait his turn and actually the present is not so bad: on Friday, Flagg was named the Naismith High School Player of the Year.
As things turned out, Zion Williamson is the biggest recruit to come through Duke in a long time, but he was seen as the second-best recruit in that class behind RJ Barrett. Kyrie Irving was seen as highly promising, but first in his class? No.
Actually his athleticism was questioned.
Jason Williams? Don’t think so.
Shane Battier? Not even the best player in his class at Duke (that was Elton Brand).
Maybe the last Duke guy who was seen as tops in his class was Jahlil Okafor.
Not that it matters. It’s a wonderful honor for a 17-year-old. At the moment, young Flagg is on the top of the world. He still has to prove that he was the right choice for this honor and he’ll be questioned until he does. That's just the way of things.
In the meantime, he can watch Saturday and unlike most of us, he’ll be able to easily imagine the impact he’ll have on this game next year.
