Duke under Jon Scheyer is the school to beat on the recruiting trail right now in college basketball, perhaps even more so than the program was under Mike Krzyzewski.
That fact was sealed Monday when the Blue Devils officially landed 16-year-old wunderkind Cooper Flagg, the Maine native that electrified the summer recruiting circuits to become the most talked-about recruit in high school basketball. Flagg, rated the No. 1 player in the high school class of 2024 but arguably the top player regardless of class in American youth basketball, picked the Blue Devils over UConn, but his services would’ve been welcomed by every school in the country.
Duke’s recruiting under Scheyer certainly hadn’t been hurting before landing Flagg. Scheyer landed the No. 1 class in 2022 during his transition from assistant to head coach, then signed the second-rated class in 2023 and already had two five-stars in tow for 2024 before this decision. But sealing the deal with the most-hyped recruit in America (despite a hard charge late from the defending national champions) is a clear sign of the Devils’ recruiting power, even without a legendary head coach at the helm.
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Entrusting arguably college basketball’s biggest brand in what was then a 34-year-old with no head coaching experience and no coaching experience at all outside of the Duke ecosystem was a major gamble, But Scheyer navigated his first season well, peaking late in the year to win the ACC tournament title, then retained multiple potential draft picks and now has a top-five team on paper for ’23–24. And with the ways he’s recruiting, it seems unlikely that the Blue Devils will fall off anytime soon.
Flagg alone will make Duke a preseason title favorite in ‘24-25, regardless of what happens to the roster around him. His impact on both ends of the floor seemingly on every possession is unmatched by any high school player in recent memory. Offensively, he’s a modern point forward, capable of grabbing a rebound and taking the ball 94 feet to the rim, or making the right pass at the right time. His willingness to always make the right play was one of the many things that stood out this summer, even as he played on an AAU team that was overmatched talent-wise other than him. He’s also one of the best defensive prospects in a long time, possessing special shot-blocking instincts and the ability to switch onto both bigger and smaller players. College coaches and NBA scouts have hunted for the perfect player comparison for Flagg, but truthfully there isn’t one. Whether he’s the best prospect in high school basketball is up for debate, but he’s certainly the most unique.
He’ll also bring an attention to the Blue Devils and college basketball as a whole that the sport desperately needs. College basketball isn’t reliant on having the best NBA prospects on its rosters for fans to turn on the television in March, but it does need marketable superstars to pique casual fans’ interest during the regular season. Flagg will do that and more. His impact will certainly be greater than Chet Holmgren’s was at Gonzaga, and may top Zion Williamson’s at Duke if his production matches the hype that will surround him. He may end up being more comparable in attention to someone like Christian Laettner or JJ Redick, the Duke megastars who fans either loved or hated.
To a degree, Duke will always recruit itself, especially for this current generation of players that grew up watching Coach K land one-and-dones like Jayson Tatum, Williamson and Kyrie Irving. Flagg himself often said early in his recruitment that Duke was his “dream school.” But we’ve seen enough major programs fall off after legendary coach retirements that Scheyer maintaining the Duke program at an elite level was not a guarantee. Scheyer took the job knowing he’d be held to the impossible standard of matching what one of the greatest college basketball coaches ever accomplished, but securing Flagg’s commitment is another early sign that the young head coach is on his way to maintaining the program’s elite standard.
