Duke's Cooper Flagg Talks Hype Ahead of Debut: 'Not Every Day Is Going to Be Perfect'

Ahead of his debut season at Duke, expectations are through the roof for Cooper Flagg.

The freshman forward was the No. 1 player in the Class of 2024, per 247Sports Composite, and his name is already high on NBA draft boards. With all the national attention, Flagg is relying on the veterans on his team to help him navigate his freshman season.

"Not every day is going to be perfect," Flagg said, per ESPN's David Hale. "Not every day is going to be a good day for you. I'll have bad days. My teammates have been through it, so leaning on them, asking them for strategies, it's helped me get into a rhythm."

Any player who commits to Duke does so with the expectation of having plenty of national attention on them, but Flagg has garnered more hype than the average high school prospect over the past few years.

The hype only intensified over the summer as Flagg played with the USA Basketball Select Team alongside NBA players like Jalen Duren, Jalen Suggs, Brandon Miller and more. Flagg and the Select Team practiced with and against the Team USA squad that won gold at the Paris Olympics, squaring off with legends like LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.

With all the hype comes a tremendous amount of pressure, but Duke head coach Jon Scheyer praised Flagg for how he has handled himself ahead of the season.

"I've seen a lot of different seasons, different hype, different expectations," Scheyer said. "And with Cooper, I don't know if we've ever had a 17-year-old with this much hype and attention. We talk about all the things we can control, and that's what we focus on. Cooper, I don't think he likes all the attention, to be honest. He's all about just wanting to be like the other guys — wanting to win, wanting to compete. And he's done a great job of setting the tone for all of that."

Duke begins its 2024-25 campaign on Oct. 19 with a matchup against Lincoln in front of a home crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where Flagg will look to live up to the hype he's grown accustomed to over the last year.