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Cooper Flagg joins elite company with Wooden Award victory
By Mark Kern
Published:
Cooper Flagg is having as good of a freshman season as nearly any player in college basketball history, and he added to that campaign by winning a prestigious college basketball award.
Before the team tipped off in its Final Four matchup against Houston, Flagg became the 4th freshman in college basketball history to win the Wooden Award. Flagg is the 8th Duke player to win the honor, the most Wooden Award winners for a single program.
Flagg joined Kevin Durant (Texas), Anthony Davis (Kentucky) and Zion Williamson (Duke) to win the award. Flagg is averaging 18.9 PPG, 7.5 RPG and 4.2 for Duke, while also averaging more than a steal and a block.
The conversation of the race had it as a 2-man race between Flagg and Auburn star Johni Broome. The other 3 candidates were Walter Clayton Jr., Mark Sears and Braden Smith.
For Duke, Flagg winning the Wooden Award shows just how special the freshman has been all year, joining 3 NBA superstars in winning the award as a freshman. As big of an achievement as that was, only 1 of those players (Davis) ended that freshman season with a national title.
Flagg has that opportunity still, as the Blue Devils and Cougars tip off in Phoenix at 8:49 p.m. with a spot in the national title on the line.
