Cooper Flagg is no stranger to attention. He’s been dealing with high levels of scrutiny for years.
And he’s been tuning it out just as long.
The Associated Press men’s college basketball player of the year has taken his game to new heights this season at Duke. And there’s a more understated part of his approach that has been elite for a long time: his ability to block out the noise and not be weighed down by other people’s expectations.
“As far as outside expectations, I couldn’t really care less,” Flagg told the AP as he won this newest award. “For me, it’s more about following the expectations of my teammates, my coaches, my family.”
Go back in time to when Flagg had just finished eighth grade, when he was being interviewed by then-Bangor Daily News sports reporter Ernie Clark, and you’ll find a very similar approach from a much younger but equally focused Flagg. He had already received a college scholarship offer, and was widely considered among the top 100 players in his class nationally.
“I try not to pay too much attention to them,” he told Clark about those player rankings at the time. “I just keep playing and I know that my game will get me where I want to go.”
Fast forward back to today, with Flagg leading the Duke Blue Devils into the Final Four, and it’s safe to say that statement from 2021 has aged pretty well.
And several years later, Flagg is continuing to show that same knack for blocking out the noise.
“That’s a special ability to be able to drown out the noise when the noise can be overwhelming at times for somebody like him,” Kelly Flagg, his mother, told the AP. “I’m really proud of him for being able to do that.”
Kelly Flagg was also asked about that ability, both from Cooper and his twin brother Ace, in an interview several weeks ago with the Bangor Daily News. Cooper and Ace Flagg have been drawing attention in Maine and nationally for years.
Kelly credited her sons’ longtime club basketball coach Andy Bedard and longtime player development coach Matt MacKenzie as pivotal pieces in Cooper and Ace’s development. She said Bedard “beat that drum from a really early age” about tuning out the noise once the media started paying attention to her sons.
“And just saying repeatedly, ‘That’s just noise. If you don’t keep putting in the work, all of that goes away,’” she explained about Bedard’s approach. “And just continuing to drive that message home with them has been really important.”
Bedard was also asked about that approach, specifically in regards to Cooper, in a recent interview with the BDN. He emphasized the tight circle around Flagg and used the reception that their Maine United AAU team used to get on the road as an example of focusing on what matters.
“From an early stage, a lot of the gyms didn’t necessarily welcome us. We were kind of in the wrong sand box, being from Maine and coming down and playing against these national teams,” Bedard explained. “And when we would win, there would be a lot of noise early, and then as we’re up by 25 in the second half, it got awfully quiet in those gyms. And it’s kind of like the messaging. In this circle, we believe, we know, and then everything else — good or bad — doesn’t matter.”
That mindset is clearly present in Flagg’s approach today, including what he told the AP about outside expectations and the way he has been prioritizing team wins over individual awards. MacKenzie explained before the NCAA tournament that he and Flagg had discussed how early awards were more like an appetizer, and the Duke freshman needed “to stay hungry for the main course” of a run deep into the playoffs.
Even when it’s good noise, Flagg has clearly made it a point to focus on what he can control rather than getting caught up in the external attention and expectations. And it seems to be working out OK so far as Flagg and Duke head into the Final Four.
