Duke coach sounds alarm on Cooper Flagg cramps: ‘We gotta help him take care of this now’

As dominant as No. 7 Duke has played in two wins this week, a major concern is dominating coach Jon Scheyer’s mind as the Blue Devils prepare to play No. 23 Kentucky on Tuesday night.

Fabulous freshman Cooper Flagg, while notching his first double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds during a 100-58 win over Army West Point on Friday night, could only play five minutes of the second half.

For the second game in a row, Flagg suffered from leg cramps.

“Yeah we’ve got to help him,” Scheyer said, before repeating for emphasis, “We’ve got to help him. I’m not happy about it for him. We’ve got to help him, and we will. Right after this, I can promise you I’m gonna be meeting. I don’t care if it’s all night, we can’t have that happening. Bottom line.”

Monday night, Flagg felt the calf muscle in his lower left leg seize up on him late in Duke’s 96-62 win over Maine. The problems started earlier against Army, with Flagg showing signs of issues with the quadriceps in his upper left leg early in the second half.

He’d already reached double-double status by halftime, with 13 points and 10 rebounds in 18:53 of first-half play. Duke certainly didn’t need him to play 35 minutes or so to beat Army.

But it will need him that much against better opponents as this month progresses and early December arrives.

Duke plays Kentucky at Atlanta in Tuesday night’s Champions Classic doubleheader, and has games at No. 10 Arizona (Nov. 22), against top-ranked Kansas in Las Vegas (Nov. 26) and at home with No. 11 Auburn on Dec. 4.

Scheyer made it clear Flagg is not causing the cramping problem with poor nutrition or hydration practices. But it will be a collective effort to stop the issue.

“It’s all of us,” Scheyer said. “It’s me. It’s our coaches. It’s our medical team and sports performance. It’s all of us. We got to help him, because he’s doing everything that he needs to in preparation. It’s not like there’s something that he’s not doing. He prepares his butt off. He drinks. He’s eating the right way. He does everything he needs to. We gotta help him take care of this now. Now.”

Against Army, after grabbing a defensive rebound with 17:11 to play, Flagg missed a 3-pointer at 16:16. When Scheyer called a 30-second timeout at 15:39, he removed Flagg from the game. That’s when Flagg sought treatment from Duke athletics trainer Jose Fonseca.

They used a massaging tool to treat the upper left leg while Flagg gulped liquids.

Flagg returned to the game with 11:28 to play but lasted only 1:19 before Scheyer again called a 30-second timeout and replaced him.

As the team was huddling without him during that break, a frustrated Flagg screamed an obscenity as he stretched his legs.

Later, in the postgame locker room, Flagg expressed confidence he and Duke’s staff would solve the situation.

“I’m good,” Flagg said. “It’s a new thing for me. I haven’t really dealt with that. We’ve got a plan in place. We’re gonna follow it, figure it out. We’ll figure it out for sure.”

During the 2021-22 season, Duke experienced a similar issue with freshman Paolo Banchero. He suffered from cramping in November wins over Kentucky and Gonzaga. Fonseca and Nick Potter, Duke’s director of high performance and sports science, made adjustments to Banchero’s pregame routine.

The issue didn’t slow Banchero any further as he turned in an all-American season, leading Duke to the ACC regular-season championship and the Final Four before becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

NBA scouts already consider Flagg a strong candidate to be the No. 1 pick in next summer’s draft. He wants to lead Duke to similar success, maybe even more than Banchero’s team produced, during his lone season in a Blue Devils uniform.

Even in limited minutes due to the cramping, Flagg is showing a versatile game. He made 5 of 10 shots, including 2 of 4 3-pointers, while scoring 13 points against Army. In addition to his 11 rebounds, he had three assists, three blocked shots and two steals. He did all that in 24:33 of playing time.

But that won’t be enough court time as Duke steps up in competition. He knows that and Scheyer knows that.

Between now and the scheduled 9:30 p.m. tip against Kentucky at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena Tuesday night, Flagg and Duke’s staff will strive to keep his body from working against him.

For Duke to reach all its lofty goals this season, they must be successful.