What to expect from Cooper Flagg this season, according to college coaches

Since the summer of 2023, when he produced a historically dominant month of July and then reclassified into the high school class of 2024, Cooper Flagg has been the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft.

The hype has only grown in the past 15 months. Flagg committed to Duke, led Montverde Academy (Florida) to an undefeated season and national high school championship, then held his own against the USA Basketball Olympic team as the first college player since 2013 to be named to the USA Basketball Men’s Select Team. He also has multiple National Player of the Year awards and a gold medal from 2022. Flagg is 6-foot-9 with an incredible work ethic and skill set at both ends of the floor.

Oh, and he doesn’t turn 18 years old until December.

The accolades are there. The NBA potential is known.

But let’s not fast-forward until June just yet. He has five months of college basketball to play — and he’s walking into a situation in Durham with All-America and national championship expectations.

“It’s important for all of us to remember he’s 17,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer told ESPN this month. “This is a process. But he’s not running from it, he’s not afraid of it. And he’s been just such a good guy to coach.”

To get a feel for his expected impact on the college game, we spoke to a handful of college coaches to get their impressions of the versatile forward, and how they might approach a matchup against Flagg and the Blue Devils.

‘That’s why you fear him so much’

Flagg is one of the biggest storylines entering the 2024-25 college basketball season. He didn’t attend ACC media day earlier this month but was still a consistent topic of conversation.

Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire said, “He has a chance to be one of the special ones,” while NC State coach Kevin Keatts added, “When a guy’s got it, he’s got it.”

College coaches saw Flagg plenty of times when he was at the high school level, facing the best competition on the Nike EYBL circuit or at Montverde or with USA Basketball. So nearly every coach already has a baseline evaluation of the star freshman.