Jon Scheyer shares how lucky he feels to coach Cooper Flagg

With the Blue Devils’ win on Monday, Cooper Flagg played what could have been his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. With that, Jon Scheyer took that opportunity to reflect on what it is to be his coach for one of the best-ever freshmen in college basketball.

Following the 93-60 win last night for No. 2 Duke over Wake Forest, Scheyer spoke about Flagg and his season in Durham. He said, although enjoying coaching the prospect that he is who can do every single thing on the court, that he also enjoyed coaching the person that is Flagg.

“Yeah, I think the, the talent speaks for itself. Love coaching his talent,” said Scheyer. “But, I’ve loved coaching the person. You know, he’s, he’s all about the right stuff.

“He plays so hard, he’s competitive, great teammate and, obviously, his ability is special. So, as a coach, it allows you to do a lot of different things because of his versatility. You know, he’s guarding one through five. You know, there’s not really a matchup for him. If you double him, he passes it. If it’s one-on-one, he scores it. He just has that feel for, when the game’s on the line or the game rises, he’s going to do that himself.”

In his final home game, Flagg filled up the box score again with 28 points (62.5% FG, 50% 3PT), eight rebounds, seven assists, three blocks, and two steals. That brought his season’s averages to 19.6 points (49.7% FG, 38.2% 3PT), 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.2 blocks.

Those numbers could be even better for Flagg but, as Scheyer noted, he’s doing that in 31 minutes per game with him not having to push it considering Duke has an average margin of victory of 22.4 points.

“You know, I mean, look, I just hope everybody recognizes, if we had been, if we were in more close games, his numbers would be like (they were tonight),” Scheyer said. “I think he’d be doing a lot.”

With that performance against the Demon Deacons as his encore in Cameron, Scheyer actually almost put Flagg back in after subbing him out for the final time in order for them to fully applaud him for his impact on their season.

“Even – I wanted to just put him back in, just for a minute, because I just wanted, just to be able to recognize him and what he’s done,” stated Scheyer.

Flagg has helped Duke to a record of 27-3 overall with at least a share of the regular-season title in the ACC. He’s also right there for conference and national honors for First Teams, for Freshman of the Year, and for Player of the Year.

All that, both on and off the court, has what has made it an honor for Scheyer to coach Flagg – with more for them to do with at least a few games left with one another.