By all appearances, Cooper Flagg is built to make leap from Duke to No. 1 pick

TUCSON — “I think you can’t fully appreciate it until you’re there and you understand how much people either love or hate Duke. There’s nobody on the fence about it. It ends up with a lot of passionate people at the game, so it made it a lot of fun.”

That is the mindset to be at your best playing for the Duke Blue Devils, as shared by 2010 national champion and Phoenix Suns center Mason Plumlee.

For the first time, we got to see how 17-year-old freshman phenom Cooper Flagg embraced it on the road. A trip to McKale Center against the Arizona Wildcats on Friday included dozens of obscenities tossed his way before the game started. The visitors enter the floor right next to the student section, and Flagg got to hear the worst of it the couple of times his team entered and exited the court prior to tip-off.

Flagg’s 24 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal in Duke’s 69-55 win was his response.

He, as the saying goes, let his game do the talking. And to be clear, Flagg has gone viral in the past for his chatter.

But there wasn’t so much as a look toward any fans after his buckets, even across a stretch when he scored eight straight Duke points during in the mid-second half to help clinch the win.

“I’ve only watched him play a couple of times, but he plays with that edge and that spirit that I doubt that stuff gets to him,” Suns guard Grayson Allen told Arizona Sports in the week leading to the Duke-Arizona game. “Because it seems like when he gets in the game, he turns on that fire to go compete.”

Allen, a four-year player at Duke and 2015 national champion who attended Flagg’s game Friday, would know something about that.

While not taking on as much of an NBA spotlight in college as Flagg, he is one of the most hated college basketball players in recent memory. The public enemy No. 1 mantra that was passed down from Christian Laettner to JJ Redick to Allen is now Flagg’s.

And Flagg doesn’t have antics to his game. He’s just too damn good.

Flagg is almost assuredly going to become the sixth Blue Devil selected first overall in the NBA Draft. That will double Duke up over any other university and at least triple the amount of every school besides Kentucky.

Duke’s 56 players to get picked in the first round trails only Kentucky (60). North Carolina (54) is next up with a large gap to the next schools up, UCLA (43) and Kansas (36).

Those five programs are widely considered the “blue blood” schools in college basketball.

When speaking with the former Blue Devils on the Suns, plus Phoenix guard Devin Booker, who played for Kentucky, it’s clear why those schools have that large of a gap.

Yes, there is something to a big-time prospect playing at a lesser school, perhaps one close to or at home. Helping build a program has its appeal, too. But for these kids, the pressure that comes with playing at a program like Duke is perfect preparation for what the NBA has in store.

“The brightest of lights, the biggest stage (are at Duke),” Suns guard and 2015 Duke national champion Tyus Jones said to Arizona Sports. “And for me when I was there, Coach K mentally prepared me in every area for this level. Most definitely.”

“They have a lot of expectations,” Allen added. “When you go to Duke, there’s years and years of teams before you that have set a certain standard or certain level of success that is expected of you as a Duke team. So he’s got all of that there going already. Outside of that are his individual expectations with everyone expecting him to be the No. 1 pick, so he’s got a lot.”

Allen pointed out that records and streaks that previous teams set are passed down to the next group. He remembers Duke’s unbelievable home winning streak against non-conference opponents that stretched 36 years and lasted 150 games. He felt the responsibility to maintain it.

“You don’t want to be the first,” Allen said.

Nights like Friday in Tucson have to be part of the equation for why Flagg went to Duke.

The two schools with a healthy amount of history between them hadn’t played in McKale Center for more than three decades. And even without that gap, the energy surrounding a historic basketball program like Arizona hosting Duke is enough for Flagg to test himself in an environment that will make him better.

“You get a little bit because every game ends up being a big game,” Allen said of the pressure of playing for Duke. “When you’re at home, Cameron (Indoor Stadium) sells out. When you’re on the road, the teams usually sell out to watch the game.”

College basketball fans naturally dislike those schools. It is ingrained into them, like football fans hating the Dallas Cowboys and baseball fans hating the New York Yankees. To that point: Arizona students camped out a day before the Duke visit to secure seats.

Booker agreed with the notion that there’s something extra playing for those hated schools. And for Flagg and the attention he carries, Booker sees someone ready for that.

“He’s built for it,” Booker told Arizona Sports last week. “He has everything he takes and I’m sure he wants that. He has all the intangibles to be super good.”

Devin Booker, Kevin Durant got first-hand look at Cooper Flagg in Team USA camp

Over the summer, Flagg was the first collegiate player in more than a decade to get the call for Team USA’s select team. He battled the Olympic roster during training camp in Las Vegas prior to an exhibition tour before the Americans left for Paris.

“Honestly, looked like he fit right in. … Super impressed by him and how he carries himself,” the two-time Olympic gold medalist Booker told Arizona Sports.

The gym was only open to media for a handful of minutes on one lone day of public scrimmage viewing. Even over that time, Flagg created a few highlights. While the work at hand takes the highest priority, those guys notice when the media is in there — and they know what it means if someone gets posterized. They know it’s a viral story if someone with the build-up of Flagg gets a few buckets on some future Hall of Famers. He did anyway.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist and Suns forward Kevin Durant was dealing with an injury at the time, so he wasn’t able to play against Flagg. But you know him. He was watching.

“Confident player, young and skilled, good fundamentals — excited to watch him this season,” Durant told Arizona Sports.

Well, that must be pretty cool to hear, right?

“I learned a lot from them,” Flagg said of his stint with Team USA. “Just to hear that high praise, it means a lot to me.

“It’s something that not everybody gets to do,” Flagg added. “That experience of playing the players at the highest level, you don’t see that everywhere. Just getting that opportunity to go out there and play and compete was really priceless to me and I learned a lot from them. The way they carry themselves, the way they play, compete.”

Durant had his own amount of hype entering college and going the one-and-done route. More importantly, he’s seen a whole lot of guys get billed as the next big thing since he entered. Some have succeeded. Others have failed.

What’s the key to meeting those types of expectations, if not smashing right through them?

“Just keeping the main thing the main thing — basketball,” Durant said. “It looks like he’s just focused on the game and trying to help his team win. He looks like a great teammate from the TV, so that helps a lot when you’re just locked in with your group. That tends to take your mind off the outside noise. He got a good head on his shoulders, good parents, good teammates, good coaches so I think he’ll be fine.”

There are a handful of people you will hear talk about Booker and the first time they realized he was special — far more than a late lottery pick. Those deep inside basketball talk about it like it’s this innate feeling they get watching someone up close.

Booker, while adding a caveat that everyone’s start to their NBA journey is different and can be bumpy, was asked if that’s something he believes is identifiable.

“Yeah, you can,” Booker said. “I don’t necessarily say it’s always smooth. You never know if it’s gonna be. But when the competition is there, the mindset is there and the professionalism is there at that young of an age — you can tell.”

Follow @KellanOlson