Duke basketball forward Cooper Flagg Zachary Taft-Imagn Images

Duke Basketball Updates Cooper Flagg Status for NCAA Tournament Opener

Originally posted on Duke Blue Devils on SI
By Matt Giles | Last updated Mar 21, 2025 12:36 PM ET

Duke basketball freshman standout Cooper Flagg, the ACC Player of the Year, is back to playing strength. So, he's ready to battle for the No. 1 seed Blue Devils (31-3) when they begin their NCAA Tournament journey with an East Regional Round of 64 clash versus the No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers (23-12) in Raleigh's Lenovo Center at 2:50 p.m. ET Friday.

On Thursday afternoon, the Duke basketball social media team revealed that Flagg is a go for what figures to be the projected No. 1 overall draft pick's lone March Madness.

Coop update --> active tomorrow vs. Mount St. Mary's

@Cooper_Flagg pic.twitter.com/V5fDURoYPF
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 20, 2025

"I'm feeling pretty good," Flagg told the media about 30 minutes after the announcement. "We have an incredible team, incredible training staff. So we've been working through the steps of just getting back to 100 percent, and I feel very good.

"I'm very confident moving forward."

The 6-foot-9, 205-pound phenom sprained his left ankle in the Blue Devils' ACC Tournament quarterfinal victory over Georgia Tech, just one week before the program updated his status to "active."

Meanwhile, third-year head coach Jon Scheyer and his high-powered Blue Devils remain without the services of junior forward and elite defender Maliq Brown. He's been out with a left shoulder injury since the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

Despite the absences of Brown and Flagg last week, Duke captured its second ACC Tournament crown under Scheyer's command.

This article first appeared on Duke Blue Devils on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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