Jon Scheyer on Cooper Flagg cramping: 'We gotta help him'

Cramps are unavoidable sometimes, and it got the better of Duke‘s star freshman Cooper Flagg in the second half of Friday night’s 100-58 win over Army.

While Duke had a more-than-comfortable lead against the Black Knights, Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer wasn’t pleased with having to pull Flagg late. In Tuesday’s Championship Classic matchup against Kentucky, taking Flagg out of the game is the last option Scheyer wants to consider.

“We’ve got to help him,” Scheyer said postgame. “I’m not happy about it for him. We’ve got to help him, and we will.

“Right after this, I can promise you, I’m going to be meeting, I don’t care if it’s all night, we can’t have that happening. Bottom line. And I thought he had it going, too. In that first half, he was just really controlling the whole game with his rebounding, his passing, his playmaking, scoring. He was assertive shooting the ball, so we can’t have that happening. We’re going to fix that.”

Flagg still managed to secure a double-double, scoring 13 points and adding 11 rebounds to his total across 25 minutes. Scheyer said Flagg did everything he could with the time he could on the court, but the Blue Devils want to ensure he’s at 100% before each outing.

“It’s all of us,” Scheyer continued. “It’s me, it’s our coaches, it’s our medical staff, it’s sports performance. It’s all of us. We need to help him. He’s doing everything that he needs to in preparation. He prepares his butt off. He drinks, he’s eating the right way — he does everything he needs to and we need to help him take care of this now.”

During the 2021-22 season, former Duke star Paolo Banchero suffered from cramps during wins against, ironically, Kentucky, and then again against Gonzaga. Both games were in November, and the issue subsided after that.

However, Duke will hope that Flagg’s cramping issues will be a one-off incident. It’s likely the Blue Devils will take extra steps behind the scenes to ensure their star freshman is hydrated and ready to play on Tuesday night in Atlanta.