Duke leaning on Cooper Flagg late didn’t work this time. But the Blue Devils want the ball in his hands

ATLANTA — Jon Scheyer would do it again.

And he almost certainly will later this season.

With 26.5 seconds left, Duke and Kentucky played out another Champions Classic thriller. Scheyer took a timeout to figure out his best game — or, really, his best player.

Because let’s face it: There was only one thing Duke’s coach would ask for in the opening moments of Kentucky’s eventual 77-72 victory. He knew. Kentucky knew it. Everyone in State Farm Arena knew it. But with the game on the line, you turn to your star, even if he’s 17 years old and playing in only his third college game.

Jon, what did you want from that last play?

“Ball in his hands,” Scheyer said before pointing his thumb to the right, where freshman Cooper Flagg sat.

It’s that simple. In the crucible of one of the best games of this early college basketball season, Scheyer put the rock in Flagg’s hands and essentially said, go make a bucket. Which, considering Flagg already had a game-high 26 points at the time — including Duke’s last seven points, and 12 of its past 14 — isn’t exactly a bad strategy.

So after fellow freshman Kon Knueppel inbounded the ball to Flagg, Duke ran three ghost screens — first with Maliq Brown, then Tyrese Proctor, then Knueppel — and then took everyone out.

No ball screens. No passes. No interference. Let Flagg cook.

It worked with ownership before, right? Flagg basically did the same thing when he grabbed an offensive rebound from Brown and drove into the teeth of Kentucky’s defense without hesitation. Somehow he made a shot from over six feet in front of Andrew Carr, who tapped around the back edge before eventually falling through the hoop. That brought the score to 72, setting up a do-over scenario for Duke and its teenage phenom.

Only this time, Kentucky – the fifth most experienced team in the country, according to KenPom, which starts four seniors and a junior – has learned a thing or two. Instead of following Knueppel to the wing after his ghost screen, Kentucky wing Otega Oweh hung back a bit, wary of Flagg’s inbound drive. Gotcha. When Flagg tried to post Carr this time, Oweh saw his opening, timing his help defense perfectly before ripping the ball from Flagg’s grasp. Knueppel fouled Oweh in transition before getting a shot off, but the damage had already been done; Oweh’s subsequent free throws put Kentucky ahead for good.

After the match, Scheyer acknowledged that he “probably could have put Flagg in a better position, to be honest.” Like a ball screen with Proctor maybe to force the defensive switch? Duke’s junior point guard had Jaxson Robinson guarding him, and while Robinson is an excellent shooter, his defense is about as strong as tissue paper. Earlier in the second half, when Flagg dropped Robinson into the post, it freed him up for his easiest points all night. Or maybe Scheyer could have involved Knueppel first and had him eat Flagg from a small sandwich.

But anyway, Scheyer went to Flagg.

And he was right about that.

“We will be together a lot in these moments, and I trust his instincts,” Scheyer said. “But he has to touch it and trust that good things will happen. I wish you could say that every time, but that’s not the reality.”

That didn’t happen at that crucial moment. And that didn’t happen on the next possession, when Flagg — with Duke still only two behind — lost his dribble in the corner and the ball slowly rolled out of bounds. “I lost the ball first, and then I might have slipped,” Flagg said, “but whatever happened, that’s no excuse.” The 6-foot-1 wing collapsed on the court as the nearby referee signaled the turnover, which all but sealed the Blue Devils’ defeat with 5.5 seconds left.

And while these two late substitutions are the moments that will live on, it’s clearly wrong to lay the blame for Duke’s defeat at Flagg’s feet. A teenager responded in his first game on national television after months of being touted as perhaps the best American-born NBA prospect since Anthony Davis with his game-high 26 points and 12 rebounds, plus two assists and two blocks.

He played every second after halftime, which became paramount when graduate guard Sion James left with a shoulder injury and freshman big Khaman Maluach left with cramps. (About that: Scheyer said he’s “concerned” that cramps have affected Duke freshmen in all three games so far, but it’s something Duke sports scientists are actively working on, as they did with Paolo Banchero years ago.)

Without Flagg, who had a tip-in dunk on Duke’s first possession, Scheyer’s team never would have had a chance to win in the final minute of the game. But, and yes, there is a ‘but’, it is also true that the entire Flagg and Duke team really showed their youth in the second half.

In the first half, Duke had 28 points in the paint to Kentucky’s six. In the second half? Kentucky had 20 to Duke’s 18.

In the first half, Duke trailed turnovers by 11 points, and Kentucky had none. In the second half? Kentucky had nine and Duke only four.

In the first half, Duke had eight fast-break points, compared to just one for Kentucky. In the second half? Kentucky again had nine to Duke’s four.

That’s not one freshman having two tough possessions. That’s an entire team that is withering, or at least looking its age when it couldn’t afford to.

“They showed incredible maturity,” Scheyer said, “and their experience shone through in the second half.”

That’s the difference between the fifth-oldest team in the country and a team that starts three freshmen, right? Flagg, who learns quickly, is unlikely to make these mistakes again in the late game. Also, Knueppel, one of the best shooters in the country, isn’t likely to shoot a 5-of-20 rating, or 1-of-8-of-3. Also worth noting: Duke wouldn’t have been this close to a game if he were almost normally shot. The Blue Devils entered Tuesday making 14 3-pointers per game, fifth-most in the country, before making just four of their 23 attempts from deep, or 17.4 percent.

Still. This is the first time any of these guys have been in a game like this, in a building like this, where CATLANTA feels like an appropriate dateline. Scheyer has said several times this summer and this season that he didn’t put Duke’s daunting non-conference schedule together in a way that allowed his team to remain undefeated. The Blue Devils still play in Arizona, vs. Kansas in Las Vegas and hosts Auburn in the ACC-SEC Challenge.

He did it so his team would get better. And while learning from wins is more fun than learning from losses, it is not always effective.

“We still have a long season to go,” Scheyer said. “I feel more optimistic tonight if I lose than I did even before, because in this game you discover the character of your team and the heart that they have – and this team has a lot of heart.”

Scheyer made a controversial choice to build his third roster around a freshman, even one as talented as Flagg, in the most accomplished era in college basketball history. Remember, the past two Final Fours have combined two first-year starters. But if Duke wants to get to that point, Flagg will have to be the best player on the floor in situations like Tuesday.

He wasn’t on his first crack. It happens. But this is how the youth gets experience. It’s living things.

Want to bet how Flagg’s next chance to win a game goes?

“Coach has confidence in me to go make a play,” Flagg said. “I’m glad he had that confidence in me, to put the ball in my hands. That’s when I look for it. It didn’t work out, but I’m going to look for it anyway.”

(Photo of Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Kentucky’s Otega Oweh: by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)