We’re still in the calm before the media storm when it comes to Cooper Flagg but Duke fans know what’s coming because we’ve seen it a lot. Consider what we have seen in the past:
Christian Laettner – the hatred for Laettner, who graduated in 1992, continues to this day, with special (and understandable) intensity in Kentucky. His ruthless and arrogant dominance scared the hell out of everyone in college basketball and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
JJ Redick – the new coach of the Los Angeles Lakers almost quit under the onslaught he faced at Duke before realizing that the best revenge was immense success.
Grayson Allen – his repeated tripping incidents completely reset the whole Duke Hating machinery, plus social media had really kicked in by this point, amplifying the reactions.
Zion Williamson – the fascination with the 6-6, 285 lb athletic freak was so intense that for many Duke Hating was suspended. Even Barack Obama came to Cameron to see the Show, who unfortunately was hurt when he infamously blew his shoe out in the first minute of the Duke-UNC game.
How is this going to go with young Flagg?
Well, we’ll see. He’s a ready-made target and the fact that he should be a high school senior is already forgotten.
This article thinks this season will be a big success for Flagg and Duke and has three reasons why: 1) the talent around Flagg; 2) he fits well with Duke’s system and 3) even though he’s still quite young at 17 he’s played against top talent consistently.
It’s hard to argue with any of those points. Duke has a big, athletic team and the defense is likely to be incredible. Flag should be a good fit in most ways and he has in fact dominated high-end competition.
Our guess is that he lives up to expectations, generally speaking, but the whole media thing is a wild card – and by media we mean the traditional media and the 24/7 social media onslaught which never stops.
Flagg would be wise to seek out input from Laettner, Redick, Allen and Williamson and others like Steve Wojciechowski and Bobby Hurley who also had to deal with a lot at Duke.
He’d also be likely to just tune out from social media until after the season. Who needs it?