Cooper Flagg injury update: CBS reveals if Duke star will play in NCAA Tournament after being made available

Duke superstar freshman Cooper Flagg will play in today’s NCAA Tournament first-round game against Mount St. Mary’s. The latest came from CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson.

The No. 1-ranked Blue Devils (31-3) opens NCAA Tournament play at 2:50 pm ET Friday against the 16th-seeded Mountaineers (23-12) out of the East Regional from the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, NC. The 6-foot-8 Flagg “will not be restricted in any way,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer told Wolfson.

Cooper Flagg WILL play today vs @MountHoops
Jon Scheyer telling me he will not be restricted in any way. #Duke

— Tracy Wolfson (@tracywolfson) March 21, 2025

Flagg’s status was in question after suffering a sprained ankle in the first half of the Blue Devils’ ACC Tournament game against Georgia Tech a week ago Thursday, forcing the future No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick to miss Duke’s last two tournament games against North Carolina and Louisville. Duke announced on Thursday he would be available but did not specify if he would play.

But after a week’s rest, Flagg will be back on the floor Friday afternoon as the Blue Devils begin NCAA Tournament play. Flagg is reportedly “pain-free,” according to ESPN insider David Hale, and has been trending in the right direction for the last few days.

Duke is a heavy favorite against the 16th-seeded Mount St. Mary’s after being awarded the second No. 1 seed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. But a potential second-round matchup against the winner between No. 9 seed Baylor and No. 8 seed Mississippi State would not be easy without Flagg.

Getting him back on the court allows Duke to be at full strength. And not many teams have been able to take them down when at that level.

Cooper Flagg: ‘I feel really good,’ confident he’ll play in NCAA Tournament

During a Thursday media availability, Flagg addressed his health status and confirmed he’d be ready to go against the Mountaineers after a week of rehab. That included Flagg practicing fully on Wednesday.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m feeling pretty good. We have an incredible team, incredible training staff. So we’ve been working through the steps of just getting back, getting to 100-percent,” Flagg told reporters Thursday. “I feel very good. I’m very confident moving forward.

“Yeah, so, I mean, from the start of the week, it was kind of like a build-up of jumping back into practice, um, getting back to 100-percent. Doing some individual things with some of the coaches on the side. And then I was back in full practice yesterday. So, I mean, I feel really good. I’m really confident about going 100-percent tomorrow.”

Scheyer further confirmed Flagg’s status at Thursday’s press conference. He added the team’s training staff had determined the superstar freshman was ready to retake the floor this week.

“He looked really good yesterday,” Scheyer said. “He did contact. He’s built up – we built him up slowly and really progressed him the right way. But he’s, he’s ready to go. In his mind, he was ready last weekend but he wasn’t. He wasn’t. But he’s been itching to get out there and I think that says a lot about who he is.”

— On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.