The obvious thing that everyone will talk about after Duke’s win over was Cooper Flagg’s performance: he racked up 42 points on 11-14/4-6 and 16-17 from the line. He also had seven rebounds and, as usual, played very well on the other end of the court.
And that’s great. It was an amazing performance that really solidified his likely #1 spot in the NBA Draft this June. The two young stars at Rutgers, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, who have at times been projected as the top picks, are seeing their team struggle. The Scarlet Knights may miss the tournament and that won’t help their stock.
As eye-popping as Flagg’s game was – and that followed his stunning dunk against Pitt earlier in the week – it wasn’t the only thing that impressed us.
At this point, we expect greatness from Flagg. He’s the real deal. However, it’s not as clear yet about his frontcourt teammate, Khaman Maluach.
In basketball terms, Maluach is a toddler. He’s growing by leaps and bounds, but up until recently, he was kind of a quiet presence in the back of the defense who scored occasionally.
That’s changing.
The obvious sign is points. Against Auburn and Louisville he scored just two points. And against those teams, he got three and two rebounds respectively.
Against Incarnate Word, he hit 17 points and seven rebounds. Against George Mason, he has six and nine.
Georgia Tech? 15 and eight. Virginia Tech saw the big guy get two points and four rebounds.
Since then, he had double eights against SMU, 11 points and eight rebounds, against Pitt, 11 points and eight rebounds and against Notre Dame Saturday, he racked up 19 points and 10 rebounds.
More to the point, he’s moved from being tentative and unsure to really confident and, increasingly, assertive.
We’ve seen this manifest in a few different ways. First, Maluach can switch freely on anyone on the court. You can imagine how it would feel, as a normal-sized guard, to see the 7-2 Maluach in your face.
Second, not too long ago, Maluach sometimes just put his arms up on defense. Most of his blocks came when the shooter didn’t see him coming. Now he’s confidently going after them, and even when he doesn’t get them, he’s often changing them.
Third, he’s been more aggressive about scoring. Most of Maluach’s points are coming off of lobs but he’s working harder to get those.
Fourth, not too long ago, he was really timid about taking the ball up after rebounding it. He’s still not perfect at this, but he’s doing much better.
And there was one more thing Saturday that jumped out at us.
Remember when Markus Burton got into it a bit with Cooper Flagg? Who stepped in? The easygoing kid from Sudan, that’s who.
It’s hard to have imagined him doing that earlier this season. He just didn’t have the confidence, or the mean streak, to do it.
For Flagg, what people were waiting to see was a solid three point shot (check) and the will to take over a game (check).
About the only thing left for him to do is to be more careful with the ball in the lane. He has answered every question.
It’s been a bit different for Maluach. People understood that he had talent but he grew up in Africa and you couldn’t really get a grip on his game the way you could with, say, Dereck Lively.
Then there is the inevitable cultural adjustment any teenager has to deal with when you move to a new country.
Everyone understood his talent, but how long would it take him to grow into it at Duke?
At the beginning of the season, we would have said it would take longer than it has. At this point?
He’s visibly improving from game to game. It’s really kind of fascinating to watch. His tentative play from November and early December is gone.
He still has work to do. In the long run, he’s going to have to be much stronger. He still needs to improve when he has the ball around the basket.
But think about this: what Duke players have you ever seen who grew faster than this guy?
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