Duke men’s basketball finds itself two wins away from claiming its second ACC tournament championship in the last three years.
But to play for the title, the top-ranked Blue Devils will first need to take down rival North Carolina on Friday night in the ACC semifinals at the Spectrum Center — likely without leading scorer Cooper Flagg.
The Blue Devils’ star sustained an apparent left ankle injury in the first half of Thursday’s ACC quarterfinal win over Georgia Tech that kept him out for the entirety of the second half.
Flagg exited the game with just two points on 1 of 7 shooting from the field with four rebounds, two steals and a block.
Here’s the latest on Flagg’s injury, including what his status might be for Friday’s ACC tournament semifinal:
Will Cooper Flagg play today vs. UNC?
Based on the comments made by Duke coach Jon Scheyer in his postgame news conference Thursday, it appears Flagg is a ‘long shot’ to play Friday vs. the Tar Heels.
‘To be honest with you, I would have to be, like, convinced by everybody in the locker room when I go back there that he should play. It’s not worth it. It just isn’t,’ Scheyer said. ‘Again, he was swollen already. It’s not about being ready to go tomorrow. That’s not the most important thing for us. We’ve got to see if we can get him right for this run that we can make in the tournament.
‘But I would have to be really convinced that we should even consider seeing if he can go tomorrow. He may not be able to go anyway. He probably won’t be able to go anyway. But I think it’s a real long shot. A real long shot.’
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Cooper Flagg injury update
Flagg sustained an apparent left ankle injury in the first half of Duke’s win over Georgia Tech in the ACC quarterfinals on Thursday.
The 6-foot-9 forward’s injury came at the 2:48 mark of the first half after he grabbed a defensive rebound on a missed 3-pointer from Georgia Tech’s Jaeden Mustaf. As Flagg came down with the rebound, he appeared to have made an awkward turn with his ankle, leading him to fall down to the floor.
Flagg walked off the court on his own power but was seen hobbling. He sat briefly on the Blue Devils bench to be tended by trainers before heading back to the locker room, where he underwent further testing, including X-rays.
As shown by ESPN’s cameras, Flagg was sitting in a wheelchair on his way to the X-ray room at the Spectrum Center. He also did not have his injured left ankle sitting on the left footrest of the wheelchair, instead keeping it elevated.
Following the game, Scheyer said that Flagg’s X-rays were ‘negative.’
Flagg returned to the Blue Devils bench in the second half, but was ruled out for the remainder of the game. As noted by ESPN’s Angel Gray, Flagg walked on his own to the bench and was not in a walking boot.
‘Good news is that he is able to walk on his own. Fans in this building were cheering for him walking back to the bench. He is officially ruled out today because of the ankle,’ Gray said.
What is Cooper Flagg’s injury?
Scheyer told reporters at the ACC tournament on Thursday that X-rays showed that his star forward has a sprained ankle.
‘Cooper, he just came down, sprained his ankle, X-rays were negative, which is great,’ Scheyer said. ‘We just have to understand there’s going to be swelling and see how he recovers and how he goes from there.’
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