INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – A Duke freshman who played like a veteran this season in becoming a consensus First Team All-American and the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, guard/forward Cooper Flagg has been selected as the winner of both the 2024-25 Oscar Robertson Trophy winner as the National Player of the Year and the 2024-25 Wayman Tisdale Award winner as the National Freshman Player of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
Flagg will be recognized at the Men's Final Four in San Antonio next month and will formally be presented with the awards on April 17 at the USBWA Awards Dinner at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, along with Henry Iba Award winner Rick Pitino of St. John’s. The winners of the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, USC’s JuJu Watkins, the Tamika Catchings Award, Vanderbilt freshman Mikayla Blakes, and the USBWA Women’s National Coach of Year, UCLA’s Cori Close, will be presented there among others as well.
Flagg, a 6-9, 205-pound true freshman from Newport, Maine, led Duke in points (18.9), rebounds (7.5), assists (4.1), steals (1.5), blocks (1.3), total field goals (205) and free throws made (151) during the regular season. Flagg is having the same type of standout season as the last Duke player to earn the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Wayman Tisdale Award, Zion Williamson, who was honored with both in the 2018-19 season. Flagg is just the fourth player to earn both awards in the same season, joining Williamson, Kentucky’s Anthony Davis (2012) and Texas’ Kevin Durant (2007). North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough won both as well, but not in the same season, earning the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 2008 after being named the USBWA’s National Freshman of the Year in 2006.
He is the sixth Duke player to win the Oscar Robertson Trophy and ninth to win the USBWA’s Player of the Year honor. Flagg is also Duke’s fifth Wayman Tisdale Award winner and sixth National Freshman of the Year honoree after becoming the fourth player in ACC history to win the league’s Player and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season. Three times he was among the USBWA's Oscar Robertson Trophy National Players of the Week, and he was the ACC’s Rookie of the Week a record 12 times this season. He is the first consensus First Team All-America selection from Duke since Williamson and RJ Barrett in 2019.
Flagg is the 10th Blue Devil rookie to garner All-America honors and was on everyone’s radar from the start. In the season-opener against Maine, Flagg had 18 points with seven rebounds, five assists and three steals to become the first freshman in Duke history to have at least 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in his debut. He was the first Duke player in the last 40 years to amass 50+ points, 25+ rebounds and 10+ assists in his first three career games, per ESPN. In Duke’s four top-25 matchups, Flagg averaged 21.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.3 steals per game.
He is as well-respected for his defensive play as for his offense, being selected to the ACC All-Defensive Team and finishing second in the voting for ACC Defensive Player of the Year, helping Duke to list seventh nationally in field goal percentage defense (.386), seventh in scoring defense (61.9) and ninth in rebound margin (+8.1), all of which led the ACC. Duke is the only Division I team to score 80 points or more per game (82.7 to lead the ACC) and hold its opponents to fewer than 62 points per game (61.9). The Blue Devils could become the first team in ACC history to lead the conference in both categories.
The Oscar Robertson Trophy is based on regular-season performance. But Flagg got off to a rousing start to the 2024 postseason over the weekend, scoring 18 points and registering team-highs of nine rebounds and six assists in Duke’s 89-66 win over Baylor on Sunday that sent it into the Sweet 16 for a second consecutive season and the 28th time overall since 1985 when the field expanded to 64. Flagg scored 14 points and had seven rebounds in Duke’s 93-49 win over Mount St. Mary’s in its NCAA opener.
Flagg is the 18th ACC player to earn the Oscar Robertson Trophy/National Player of the Year honor going back to its first season in 1959, and the 11th to win the Wayman Tisdale Award/National Freshman of the Year back to its start in 1989.
Duke’s previous Oscar Robertson Trophy winners are Williamson (2019), J.J. Redick (co-winner in 2006), Jason Williams (2002), Shane Battier (2001) and Elton Brand (1999). Christian Laettner (1992), Danny Ferry (1989) and Art Heyman (1963) are former winners of the National Player of the Year Award prior to the USBWA naming it in Robertson's honor.
Duke’s other Wayman Tisdale Award winners are Vernon Carey (2020), Williamson (2019), Jahlil Okafor (2015) and Jabari Parker (2014) with Luol Deng (2004) winning it prior to the Tisdale naming.
Since the 1958-59 season, the USBWA has named a National Player of the Year. In 1998, the award was named in honor of the University of Cincinnati Hall of Famer and two-time USBWA Player of the Year Oscar Robertson. It is the nation's oldest award and the only one named after a former player.
The USBWA has presented a men's National Freshman Player of the Year Award since the 1998-99 season. This is the 15th season for the award to be named for the late Tisdale, a three-time USBWA All-American at Oklahoma and a 12-year NBA veteran before retiring in 1997 to focus on a blossoming jazz music career.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.