March Madness: Cooper Flagg's supporting cast helps power Duke into Final Four — 'Each night could be somebody else's night'

NEWARK, N.J. — In the early hours of Friday morning, a handful of kids stood in the chilly Newark night, hoping to catch a glimpse of the biggest name in college basketball. As the last few people departed the Prudential Center for the adjacent parking structure, they stopped reporters and arena staff alike frantically and excitedly asking:

“Do you know where Cooper Flagg is?”

None, myself included, knew where he was then. But now, roughly 48 hours later, we know where Flagg and the rest of the Duke Blue Devils are going.

After an 85-65 dismantling of Alabama, they’re heading to San Antonio and the Final Four.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the team as a whole,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said. “Their attitudes the whole season, from Day 1, I think this group has been different.”

Flagg, the freshman phenom who has rewritten record books in his first — and presumptive only — season in Durham, North Carolina, was somewhat anticlimactically named the Most Outstanding Player for the East region. His unprecedented performance on Thursday night all but cemented that accolade provided Duke finished the job on Saturday.

And while Duke did cut down the nets, it wasn’t due to a tour-de-force performance from Flagg. It was such a balanced effort that the entire starting lineup — Flagg included — joined Scheyer on the dais after the postgame celebration.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the guys sitting next to me and the guys in the locker room,” Flagg said. “All credit to them, the coaches for putting me in really good situations, spots on the court, giving me the ball in the right spots. And then just allowing me to play free off the ball, on the ball, whatever it was, just letting me be me. And just got to give all the credit to my teammates and coaches.”

That isn’t to say Flagg played poorly — he didn’t — but it was evidence that the likely No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s NBA Draft is somewhat human on the basketball court.

The Duke Blue Devils showed they have more than just Cooper Flagg during their run to the Final Four. (C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images)

(C. Morgan Engel via Getty Images)

Instead, it was fellow freshmen Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach — projected NBA Draft lottery picks in their own right — who offered the most impact in the dominant Elite Eight win. Knueppel and Maluach were also named to the all-regional team for the Sweet 16/Elite Eight portion of the NCAA tournament.

“I think it’s kind of something that I’ve said a lot through this whole year is we just have such a talented team,” Flagg said. “Each night could be somebody else’s night. I think tonight Kon kind of stepped up and had the ball a lot. We ran a lot of actions for him.

“I think it’s just having so many talented guys on the team, it’s not going to be your night every night. Just don’t hang your head, just keep playing hard. Somebody talked about winning the 98 percent and doing all the little things. So not letting the shots affect anything else you do and just knowing that the rest of the guys got my back and they’re going to make those plays.”

Flagg has gotten the majority of the national attention, but his running mates deserve plenty of recognition. Knueppel and Maluach are the only two Blue Devils who have started all 38 games this season (Flagg missed the final three games of the ACC tournament with an ankle injury).

On Saturday, Knueppel led the Blue Devils in scoring with a game-high 21 points, allowing Duke to improve to 11-0 this season when he’s the leading scorer.

“We have multiple weapons, and different teams play us different ways,” Scheyer said. “So depending on matchups, depending on the coverage we’re seeing, for me, I feel very confident. I think with Kon, his versatility is huge for us, and his size. He’s able to pass. He’s able to finish. You feel he’s always going to get off a good look because he has great pivots in the paint and great patience.”

While Knueppel steered the offense, Maluach helped orchestrate arguably the most impressive performance of Duke’s tournament thus far. Two days after Alabama broke an NCAA tournament record by making 25 3-pointers and hanging 113 points on BYU, the Blue Devils stifled the Crimson Tide at every turn, limiting the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense to just 65 points — its second-lowest output all season.

They’ve got length all over the place,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “You look at their starting lineup, they’ve got Khaman Maluach that has a 9-foot-8 reach, he protects the rim at a high level.

“We made the point to our guys we’re not going to go in and score on him, and we had a few guys still try to challenge him. We ended up having more blocks than them, but the way he challenges, it’s a problem.”

Even Mark Sears, Alabama’s leading scorer who set a career-high with 10 3s on Thursday, wasn’t immune to getting mauled by Maluach and Duke’s defense. Sears was limited to just six points on 2-of-12 shooting in his final game with the Crimson Tide.

“Sears is one of the best players — obviously one of the best pick-and-roll players, as well,” Scheyer said. “We have a luxury to have a guy with Khaman where he can really play different coverages. We have a 7-foot-2 guy switching onto one of the best guards in the country, and he’s doing a pretty good job moving his feet. Same thing, we had him in a deep drop, as well, because just trying to protect our paint more and have our guards really fight over.”

Saturday’s team-centric performance should strike fear into the hearts of Tennessee or Houston — Duke’s yet-to-be-determined opponent in San Antonio next weekend.

After Tyrese Proctor shot the lights out (13-of-16 from 3-point range) in Duke’s first two NCAA tournament wins and Flagg’s aforementioned masterpiece in the Sweet 16, the defensive clinic against Alabama adds to an already scary array of ways the Blue Devils can beat a team.

“Duke is as good a team as we’ve seen all year,” Oats said. “We’ve got some really good teams in the SEC, and they’re at that level, and it wasn’t meant to be for us tonight.”

This will be the first Final Four appearance for Duke under Scheyer, and the first for most of his roster. While the stage will be brighter and the stakes higher, Saturday affirmed there isn’t any doubt in anyone’s ability to rise to the occasion.

“I’m already thinking about it up here, and I have to remind myself I should enjoy this tonight and we’ll have time to do that,” Scheyer said. “How can we continue to be us with different distractions and in a different environment? And so that’s up to us to help as a coaching staff. But I know our guys will be excited and up for the challenge.”

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March Madness: Cooper Flagg’s supporting cast helps power Duke into Final Four — ‘Each night could be somebody else’s night’

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