With under eight minutes left in Duke’s comfortable and convincing 85-65 victory over Alabama in Saturday night’s East regional final of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, Blue Devils freshman phenom Cooper Flagg found himself with the basketball, being hounded by a smaller Crimson Tide player. That Alabama player was the 6 ft. 1 in. Mark Sears, who like Flagg was a first-team All-American this season, and who happened to hit 10 three-pointers—yes, 10 three-pointers—in Alabama’s Sweet 16 game against BYU two nights prior. The nearly 19,000 fans who filed into the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. came to see fireworks from Flagg, who is 6 ft. 9 in., and Sears. And here they were, going one-on-one in a key moment.
Alabama trailed by just seven. Flagg hadn’t really found his shooting touch: the freshman finished the game just 6-for-16 from the field, with16 points. And though Flagg has eight inches on him, Sears refused to back down. He tried to push Flagg out of position, but it ultimately didn’t matter: Flagg was able to convert a short jumper over his smaller fellow All-American, to give Duke more breathing room late in the game. A few minutes later, Sears again tried to disturb Flagg while he had the ball: Flagg even fell to the floor. But he kept his dribble, stood up and again drove to the hoop on Sears, again scoring on him, this time giving Duke a 76-58 cushion, with just over three minutes of the game left.
Sears dribbled down court, bullied his way into the key for a point-blank, straight- on chip shot—and missed it, adding to a frustrating evening that saw him shoot just 2-12 from the field with a single three-pointer (forget about double-digits). With that miss, Alabama was done for.
Flagg beat Alabama when it counted. “It’s not going to be your night every night,” said Flagg, the National Player of the Year in college basketball and likely the top overall NBA draft pick in June. “Don’t hang your head.”
Duke, winner of five national championships during the legendary tenure of Hall of Fame former coach Mike Krzyzewski, moves on to its first Final Four since 2022, Coach K’s last season at the helm. It’s the first appearance for his successor, former player and assistant coach Jon Scheyer. Duke will face the winner of Sunday’s Houston-Tennessee Elite Eight game in the national semifinals in San Antonio next Saturday. The deep and talented Blue Devils seem set to collide with Florida, who on Saturday also advanced to the Final Four, thanks to a thrilling comeback win against Texas Tech. Next week, in the other national semifinal, the Gators will face the winner ...
