Jon Scheyer gets real on biggest critique of Cooper Flagg
03/31/2025 02:26 PM
As the Final Four is less than a week away, Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer and freshman forward Cooper Flagg have been at the spotlight.
After Flagg earned a most complete star take, it’s for a good reason. The latter can do just about everything on the court. He can score, defend, rebound, and get his teammates involved.
The last of which, is what Scheyer notices most. However, there might be a bit of an issue with it. On the Dan Patrick Show, the Duke basketball head coach explained one area that Flagg can grow in.
“What makes him so special is him, bringing along his teammates and his feel for his passing is an incredible weapon for our team,” Scheyer said. “But also he can want to defer at times to get them going and we're at our best.
“He's at our best when he's in complete attack mode. Teammates will get shots from that, but it's probably the biggest thing that we have to get on him about. It's just making sure he's not deferring and continuously just looking to dominate, which he can.”
Flagg has been the de facto option for Duke. However, when guys like Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel get going, he wants them to get their shots. Still, Scheyer wants Flagg to be aggressive, so those guys can get more looks than they already have.
Jon Scheyer sees improvements for Duke basketball’s Cooper Flagg
Improvements show how coachable Flagg is. Most notably, Scheyer was upset with Flagg for leaving his feet on defense. Although the head coach used some vulgar vocabulary, Flagg didn’t challenge or object. He understood, quickly responded, and moved on.
That’s only a glimpse of how good of a teammate and coachable guy Flagg is. Still, he is only 19 years old. There is plenty of time for him to learn when to be aggressive and when to defer to his teammates.
From the sounds of Scheyer’s words, there is still work to be done in that area. Regardless of that, it doesn’t diminish Duke basketball’s season.
They won the ACC regular season and conference tournament with ease. Following that, Flagg returned to the NCAA tournament from an ankle injury.
Since then, they have been the favorite to win the national championship. The Blue Devils take on Houston on Saturday, in a battle of the two No. 1 seeds.
That game could be an indicator of who will walk away with the national title. In order for that to happen though, Flagg will need to find that balance between aggressiveness and selflessness.
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