Duke men’s basketball freshman Cooper Flagg has been named the winner of the Associated Press (AP) Player of the Year, the organization announced on Friday, April 4. Flagg is just the fourth freshman to win the award, joining fellow Blue Devil, Zion Williamson (2019) along with Anthony Davis (2012) and Kevin Duran (2007).
A native of Newport, Maine, Flagg becomes the eighth Blue Devil to be named National Player of the Year by the AP, more than any other program in the awards 64-year history. The only other schools with three or more recipients are UCLA with 5, Ohio State with 4 and North Carolina and Virginia each with 3.
Flagg, who turned 18 years old in December 2024, is the top-rated player by EvanMiya with a combined offensive and defensive performance rating of 10.82, while also leading the KenPom Player of the Year standings with a 2.710 rating.
The 6-9, 205-pound freshman leads No. 1 Duke in points (682), rebounds (271), assists (151), steals (50) and blocks per game (1.3), and ranks among the ACC’s top-10 in four of the five major statistical categories – scoring (3rd), rebounding (9th), assists (8th) and blocked shots (8th). He garnered both ACC player and rookie of the week honors in the same week five times this season, becoming the first player in ACC history to sweep the conference weekly awards more than twice. His 12 ACC Rookie of the Week citations are a new conference record.
Flagg became the youngest player in NCAA history to post a 40-point game when he broke the Duke and ACC freshman single-game scoring records with 42 points versus Notre Dame on Jan. 11 and registered the first NCAA Tournament performance with at least 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three blocks in Duke’s Sweet 16 victory over Arizona on March 27 en route to being named East Region Most Outstanding Player.
With his AP honors, Flagg has now been voted the National Player of the Year by four organizations, having already earning the accolade from the United State Basketball Writers Associated (USBWA), National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and CollegeInsider.com. Flagg also swept the ACC Player and Rookie of the Year awards and is Duke’s first consensus First Team All-American since Williamson and RJ Barrett in 2019.
A panel of 62 media members who regularly cover college basketball vote on the award at the conclusion of the regular season and before the NCAA Tournament starts. Voting is based on regular season performance.
Flagg is the 12th different Blue Devil to win National Player of the Year recognition and ninth to be named National Player of the Year by multiple outlets in a single season.
MOST NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR HONORS (AP, Naismith, NABC, Sporting News, USBWA, Wooden)
Duke, 44
UCLA, 29
North Carolina, 23
Purdue, 18
Virginia, 14
Ohio State, 13
Cincinnati, 11
Indiana, 11
Kansas, 11
Kentucky, 11
Oklahoma, 11
MOST WINNERS OF THE AP NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Duke, 8
UCLA, 5
Ohio State, 4.
