With Cooper Flagg struggling and Duke’s season on the line, the Blue Devils’ other freshmen stepped up to deliver the program into Saturday’s national semifinals.
This hasn’t been the case all season: Flagg has delivered on gargantuan expectations with one of the most complete seasons by a freshman in Power Five history.
But he was not himself in the Elite Eight against Alabama. Facing the possibility of being eliminated in the regional finals for the second year in a row, the Blue Devils were carried past the Crimson Tide and into the Final Four matchup against Houston by leaning on two first-year players who have spent the year in Flagg’s shadow.
They were also five-star recruits. They also held offers from many of college basketball’s most elite programs. They also stepped right into the starting lineup, making this Duke team one of the most freshmen-heavy to ever reach the doorstep of the national championship. And they’ve also delivered at a moment when the last vestiges of COVID-era super seniors have made college basketball an older man’s game, relatively speaking.
Duke wouldn’t be two wins away from the sixth national championship in program history without guard Kon Knueppel and center Khaman Maluach, two high-profile offseason additions who in almost any other year would’ve popped onto the national radar long before the NCAA Tournament.
Knueppel’s "versatility is huge for us, and his size," said Duke coach Jon Scheyer. "He's able to pass. He's able to finish. You feel he's always going to get off a good look because he has great pivots in the paint and great patience."
"He's a phenomenal player," sophomore guard Caleb Foster said of Maluach. "To have a big like that who can catch lobs and defend the rim, it doesn’t get any better than that. I can’t even describe what he means to this team. He’s a big reason why we’re here."
Maluach, who was born in Rumbek, South Sudan, was the nation’s fourth-ranked prospect in last year’s recruiting class, according to 247Sports.com, sandwiched between a
