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The 2023-24 college basketball season hasn’t even started and Duke already has its first major victory.
The Blue Devils landed a verbal commitment Monday from 2024 consensus No. 1 recruit Cooper Flagg, winning a recruiting battle with reigning national champion UConn.
Flagg, who plays for Montverde Academy (Fla.), could be the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
“I’m honored that I have the opportunity to join The Brotherhood, and hopefully I’ll be one of the players that recruits are looking at some day and someone they can see themselves being,” Flagg told Slam Magazine. “Especially from all the love I saw this last weekend when I was there, it made me really excited, all the [Cameron] Crazies and the fans. I think it’s going to be a really exciting year and [fans] should just get ready because I know that I’m all about winning, so I’m trying to keep that winning culture that Duke has.”
Flagg, a 6-foot-9 forward/center, had long been considered a Duke lean, but the last two national champions in UConn and Kansas both emerged as viable contenders.
The Maine native ultimately nixed Kansas after visiting UConn, but his visit to Duke during the school’s Countdown to Craziness event solidified his desire to be a future Blue Devil.
“I think after I got on campus at Duke, I really started to feel it, to be honest,” Flagg told Slam Magazine. “That’s something the coaches definitely stressed to me, that once you get to campus, it’s something you have to feel. And [I knew then] I wanted to go to Duke and that’s where I wanted to play college basketball.
“What went into the decision, I mean, I was just looking for a coaching staff I was really comfortable with, but [also] a coach and staff that was really going to hold me accountable. Being on the visit, I got to see them in practice, and see how they were holding their guys accountable, and really pushing them to be better. For me, ever since I was a little kid, I always had dreams of playing Division I basketball at the highest level. Especially with a place like Duke, once we got to campus, we felt it.”
Duke is ranked second in the AP poll entering the season, and this will be the second season with Jon Scheyer at the helm.
The Blue Devils had the No. 2 recruiting class in 2023 and have the top-ranked class for 2024, per 247sports.com.
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