Per Duke Comms:
Duke men’s basketball freshman Cooper Flagg has been named the winner of the 2024-25 Oscar Robertson Trophy as the National Player of the Year and the 2024-25 Wayman Tisdale Award recipient as the National Freshman Player of the Year, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) announced on Tuesday, March 25. Flagg is just the fourth player to sweep both awards, joining Zion Williamson (2019), Anthony Davis (2012) and Kevin Durant (2007).
A native of Newport, Maine, Flagg becomes the ninth Blue Devil to be named National Player of the Year by the USBWA and sixth to win the Oscar Robertson Trophy, which was established in 1998. He is the sixth Blue Devil to earn National Freshman of the Year honors from the USBWA and fifth to take home the Wayman Tisdale Award, which began in 2011.
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 10.78, compared to Johni Broome of Auburn, who is second with a 9.49 rating. Flagg also leads the KenPom Player of the Year standings, with a 2.637 rating, ahead of Broome’s 2.258.
The 6-9, 205-pound freshman leads No. 1 Duke in points (636), rebounds (256), assists (141), steals (49) 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.
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.
The Oscar Robertson Trophy, based off of regular-season stats, is 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. This is the 15th season for the Wayman Tisdale Award, 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.
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.
Flagg is the 12th different Blue Devil to win National Player of the Year recognition. The Blue Devils moved into a tie with UCLA for the most recipients of the USBWA National Player of the Year award.
MOST NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR HONORS (AP, Naismith, NABC, Sporting News, USBWA, Wooden)
Duke, 42
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 USBWA NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Duke, 9
UCLA, 9
North Carolina, 4
