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NEWARK, N.J. — What spectacle this city took in Thursday night, a pair of regional-semifinal rarities that boosted the “wow” factor of a 2025 bracket owned by the big boys.
In absence of Cinderella, give us the scintillating.
In the early tip, Alabama put on one of the best offensive outputs this glorious NCAA Tournament has ever staged, with 25 3-pointers on 51 attempts and 113 points against BYU. The singed nets took on even more heat in the nightcap: Duke vs. Arizona. Cooper Flagg and Caleb Love. The matchup meant either Flagg (a freshman) or Love (a fifth-year senior) would walk off the floor for the final time as a college player.
The one thing we ever really want from this tournament is for players and teams to meet the moment. Flagg and Love did precisely that inside the Prudential Center, combining for 65 points on 50% shooting (20 for 40 from the field) and 50% from 3 (8 for 16) to give us one of the best two-player performances on opposite sides of an NCAA Tournament game — ever.
No. 1 seed Duke shot its way past Arizona, a 4-seed, with a rollicking 100-93 victory. Flagg and his teammates get to play for the Final Four on Saturday night against Alabama.
Taking the stage and circumstances heavily into account, Flagg had the best game of his career: 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds, three blocks. The 18-year-old is a mortal lock to be the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA Draft; the litany of reasons for why that’s true were on display dozens of times Thursday night. Flagg’s the most well-rounded player in college basketball, and every single facet of his game saw opportunity to emerge against Arizona. The questions about his shooting prowess from November and December have dissipated entirely; he sank three 3s on five attempts and had nine field goals in nine variations of scoring form.
Perhaps Flagg’s biggest shot was a hurry-hurry 3 from NBA range he hoisted just before the first-half horn sounded. It cashed, turning what was nearly a tie game 10 seconds prior into a six-point Duke advantage (48-42) going into the break. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd told me afterward this sequence was critical to the final outcome.
“We couldn’t solve the puzzle,” Lloyd told CBS Sports. “We couldn’t keep him in front of us. That’s the thing. I don’t think people realize how shifty he is with the ball, and he just kept getting downhill over and over again.”
The freshman phenom pushed Duke to its first 100-point game in the tournament since 1993. Scan the archives and it’s statistically obvious: Flagg’s Thursday night in Jersey was the best game by any freshman in the history of the NCAA Tournament. No first-year player had ever scored at least 30 points, had at least five rebounds, five assists and three blocks on a March Madness stage. The last player, period, to do that in this event was Marquette‘s Dwyane Wade in 2003 vs. Kentucky in the Elite Eight.
Flagg is riveting because his basketball game is so advanced, yet he’s incapable of properly explaining how good he is at 18 years old. When asked to lay out how he put on one of the best NCAA Tournament performances ever, Flagg quickly quipped: “Just playing with really good energy, trusting our game plan, trusting my teammates. They put me in some really good spots tonight. Coach, as well, put me in some really good spots. I think just making the right play and just letting the game happen.”
The national player of the year race has been compelling for most of this season, but Flagg’s found separation vs. Auburn‘s Johni Broome in the past two weeks. Thursday night was a propulsion to the inevitable.
On the other side, Love’s final college game, the 174th of his ever-fascinating career, wound up with him showing his best against the most apropos of all opponents. The guy who ended Mike Krzyzewski’s career in the 2022 Final Four ended his college journey on his terms, albeit in a loss in his 11th and final face-off against Duke.
He not only had a 35-point night — an Arizona tournament record — but also committed zero turnovers against a No. 1 seed. He became the second player to ever get multiple 20-point game vs. Duke in the NCAA Tournament (joining UNLV‘s Anderson Hunt in 1990 and 1991). He tied Maryland‘s Juan Dixon with 178 career points vs. the Blue Devils, most ever.
“I think it’s only right,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer told CBS Sports. “We knew it was going to be him at his best in this game.”
Given the history between Love and Duke, Scheyer told me the game plan was to make Love a volume shooter and run him off the 3-point line. Scheyer added that he was dialed into the game, in the moment, but it’d be impossible to not have at least a faint flashback to that New Orleans night in April of 2022.
“I’ve coached against him enough where I know what he’s capable of. Obviously that’s in the back of your mind in playing against him,” Scheyer said. “Caleb was at the highest level tonight. We tried to make as difficult as we could, but some of the shots he hit, man, there’s not much more you can do about it.”
When Duke traveled to Tucson this past November to face Arizona, Love had a bad game: eight points on 13 shots in a 69-55 home loss. The Sweet 16 gave him an unexpected/proper chance at person redemption, and he seized it. Even with Duke’s lead growing to 19 with 13:11 remaining, Love didn’t wilt. He scored 21 of his 35 points after the break, including a barrage of 3s that chipped away at Duke’s lead.
The Wildcats got the gap as close as 91-86 with less than two minutes to go, but there wasn’t enough ground to make up. Duke is too good. Short of a win here, Love got the love he deserved afterward. His teammates at the podium all praised him and his leadership.
“He really took all of us under his wing. He’s a leader. He’s been through so much and taught us all so much,” guard Jaden Bradley said.
“If anybody ever thinks he’s not a good teammate, it’s not true,” forward Henri Veesaar said. “He’s the best teammate we had. He’s one of the better persons I’ve ever met. He’s pushed me so much over the last two years, I’m so grateful for him.”
This is a guy who was nudged out of North Carolina. Look at where the Tar Heels find themselves right now. Their issues extended far beyond Love’s alchemy in that locker room in his final season there, in 2022-23. How fulfilling it must be to sit at a podium and hear your teammates and coaches talk about you like this, especially after a loss, the final one of your college life. In the locker room afterward, Love reflected on a career filled with just as much glory as criticism.
“Most importantly, I grew as a person off the court [at Arizona],” Love told CBS Sports. “A lot of it was a lot of preconceived notions about me leaving my other school. Coach Lloyd, my teammates, they all accepted me for who I was as a person, first and foremost.”
Love has gone through a beguiling five years. His shot to beat Duke in 2022 will live on in Carolina history, but he wasn’t successful — or beloved — enough to begin and end his college career as a Tar Heel. At Arizona, he found peace and a new path. He needed it. His final months at UNC bothered him immensely. He heard all of the disdain. He agonized in private.
“I love that dude,” Lloyd said of Love.”It was an honor to be associated with him. Never had a bad interaction with him, never had a bad body language, never had a bad attitude. It’s just reassuring, because I got to know the true essence of Caleb Love. … He’s a 100th percentile. What he’s went through in his young life is it’s going to create so many advantages for him, because he’s come out of it on the other side.”
Love told me everything he heard. It hurt.
“I was a bad teammate. I was a bad person, this, this and this. It was all false,” Love said. “I feel like I showed that coming to Arizona. … We all have life issues that people may not know about it, we may not talk about, and that’s something that I I took pride in, because that’s what I was going through. I was going through a lot off the court, and I wanted somebody there to help me. My teammates were there for me, and I was there for them.”
For as freaky-good as Flagg has been all season, it was fitting to see him counterbalanced by a player five years his senior, who’s been through almost all of it at two of the biggest programs in the sport. It would have felt wrong (cursed, even) for Arizona to get blown out by Duke and Love to fall flat in his college finale. Fortunately, the fates found reason to give us the goods and provide Love with a moment he deserved.
I asked him at his locker what it was like to do this in a game against Flagg. To little surprise, Love told me he was as good as any player he’s faced.
“He can do pretty much everything on the court,” Love said. “He impacts the game in so many different ways. He can take you to the cup. He can pass. He can create for his teammates. He can block shots, rebound, put it on your head. … He’s getting the hype for a reason, so much respect to him. He has a bright future ahead, and I’m sure I’ll see him up there in the league.”
Love’s journey could go any number of directions; maybe one day these two will find each other sharing space on an NBA floor. That would be pretty cool. Whether or not it happens, at least we have this. At least we got the best of Caleb Love on the same night we got the best of Cooper Flagg. One guy earned it, the other sure as hell deserved it.
