Basketball
Duke’s Cooper Flagg has been widely regarded as the best men’s college basketball player for most of the 2024-25 season. On Saturday, just hours before his team tips off in its Final Four game, that opinion received some validation.
Flagg won the 2024-25 Wooden Award as the most outstanding men’s basketball player in the country, becoming the seventh different Duke player to win the award since it has been given out starting in 1976.
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) April 5, 2025
He joins Christian Laettner (1991-92), Elton Brand (1998-99), Shane Battier (2000-01), Jason Williams (2001-02), JJ Redick (2005-06) and Zion Williamson (2018-19) as award winners from the program.
North Carolina (four) is the only program that has had at least four winners of the award.
Flagg also joined more elite company with the award win.
Duke’s Cooper Flagg joins Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Zion Williamson as the only men’s freshmen to win the Wooden Award
ELITE COMPANY pic.twitter.com/y1fy9pJlNV
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 5, 2025
Flagg arrived at Duke with enormous expectations this season and has not only met just about all of them, he has also exceeded many of them.
He has averaged 18.9 points per game this season to go with 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and a 48.3% mark from the field.
That dominance has continued into the NCAA Tournament, including a 30-point effort in Duke’s Sweet 16 win over Arizona.
His health was a bit of a concern coming into the tournament after he suffered an ankle injury in the ACC Tournament, but it has not held him back in any way.
Flagg is expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport — he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz
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