In eight of Arizona’s 11 meetings with Duke, dating to the early Mike Krzyzewski years, the Wildcats have faced a freshman destined for greatness in a big-time game.
The list includes Christian Laettner in 1988-89, Bobby Hurley in 1989-90, Grant Hill in 1990-91, William Avery, Shane Battier and Elton Brand in 1997-98, Chris Duhon in 2000-01 and Kyrie Irving in 2010-11.
Arizona went against NBA first-round draft pick Jared McCain last year at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Now comes Cooper Flagg for the second time this season, this time in the NCAA Tournament East Region Sweet 16 at Newark, N.J. on Thursday. No. 1 Duke (33-3) will play No. 4 Arizona (24-12) at 6:39 p.m. on CBS (Channel 13).
Arizona is 4-4 against Duke with these fabulous freshmen, including a loss in November when the Blue Devils won 69-55 at McKale Center. Flagg led Duke with 24 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.
History will show as an underdog, the Cats love their chances https://t.co/OwVQsNwFBc
— Steve Rivera (@SteveRivera95) March 27, 2025
Laettner made all six of his shots from the field for 12 points but missed his lone free-throw attempt — a big one with 2 seconds left — in Arizona’s 77-75 win at East Rutherford, N.J., in the 1989-89 season.
Hurley had six assists and four steals with only five points in Duke’s 78-76 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the 1989-90 season.
Hill had 19 points and nine rebounds in Arizona’s 103-96 overtime win at McKale Center in the 1990-91 season.
Avery had 19 points, Brand 13 and Battier tied for the team lead with eight rebounds in Duke’s 95-87 win in the 1997 Maui Invitational championship game.
Duhon had nine points and six assists in Duke’s 82-72 win in the 2000-01 NCAA tournament championship game.
Tommy Lloyd spent time with Cooper Flagg this past summer when they were out at USA Basketball Training Camp for the Olympics and Flagg was on the Select Team. “He’s a guy that impacts the game in every moment. Playing hard is easy for him. I have so much respect for Cooper.” pic.twitter.com/83U06hzKJQ
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) March 27, 2025
Irving led Duke with 28 points off the bench in Arizona’s 93-77 win in the Sweet 16 in the 2010-11 season.
Flagg, a versatile talent at 6-foot-9 and 205 pounds, might be the best of all of them at a similar point in their careers. That’s impressive when thinking how dynamic players like Hill and Irving were as freshmen.
A reporter at Wednesday’s press conference at Newark asked Flagg about having a similar skill set as Larry Bird.
“Obviously, I grew up watching old Larry Bird videos and stuff like that, the ’85-86 Celtics team and their championship that year,” Flagg said. “Obviously, it’s really cool to hear people say that. He’s a legend, so it gives me a lot of confidence. It’s just a big compliment.
“The comparisons? I don’t really have too much to say on how I compare to him or not. I don’t really compare myself to anybody. I just try and be my own player.”
Mike Krzyzewski discussed today on his "Basketball and Beyond with Coach K" show on Sirius/XM Duke’s Sweet 16 matchup with Arizona and mentioned his concern that the Blue Devils are coming off two routs in the NCAA tournament before facing a much-improved Arizona team from when… pic.twitter.com/5cjqH98po6
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) March 26, 2025
Duke freshmen: Henri Veesaar “mucks up a game”
Kon Knueppell is another talented Duke freshman who had 13 points in the Blue Devils’ win at McKale Center four months ago.
Knueppell and Flagg were asked about their impressions of Arizona 7-footer Henri Veesaar.
“Veesaar is one of those guys that just plays really, really hard, mucks up a game,” Knueppell said. “Obviously, he’s really dangerous on the offensive rebounds, but knows how to play on both ends.”
Flagg’s impressions of the Estonian: Jjust a good player, can play really hard and just be a weapon for them.”
NIL killed the Cinderella Star … or maybe not
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was asked if NIL and the transfer portal have prevented a Cinderella mid-major team from advancing to the Sweet 16. All the remaining teams are from the Power 4 conferences.
Arizona has former mid-major standouts Trey Townsend (Oakland) and Anthony Dell’Orso (Campbell) in its top-eight rotation after they arrived from the transfer portal.
“Well, if you’re 4-5 at one point in the season, does it make you a Cinderella? I don’t know. No? Okay,” Lloyd said, referencing Arizona’s turbulent start to the season. “Hey, I don’t know. It’s hard. The tournament, it feels like it’s just kind of a little bit different every year.
“One year, there’s three or four teams from maybe non-power conferences that break through, and then this year there doesn’t happen to be really any. I don’t know if there’s enough sample size yet to say this is NIL driven or just how it broke this year.”
One more argument for Arizona being a “Cinderella” in this NCAA tournament — the Wildcats have 12 losses. Only one Sweet 16 team has more — Arkansas with 13.
Revisiting the storied Arizona-Duke rivalry with the elite programs playing each other in the Sweet 16 Thursday at Newark, N.J. Did you know Arizona is one of only a handful of programs that Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski had a losing record against?
Story:… pic.twitter.com/H40zgZEPeG
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) March 25, 2025
DUKE’S COACH RECRUITED BY LUTE
Duke coach John Scheyer told reporters that his final three choices during his recruiting process were Arizona, Duke and Illinois.
Scheyer was a 6-foot-5 guard out of Northbrook, Ill., when he chose Duke in 2005 — the year Arizona collapsed against Illinois in the Elite Eight at Rosemont, Ill. The Wildcats lost 90-89 in overtime after leading by 15 points with 4 minutes left.
“I just loved Coach (Lute) Olson. He was awesome to me to be around,” said Scheyer of his official visit to Tucson. “I had a great visit there, although the visit was on the heels of Arizona actually playing Illinois (in the Elite Eight).
“But just loved Coach Olson. Loved the way they played. Ultimately, it wasn’t about what wasn’t right at Arizona, it was about what was right at Duke. That’s where I felt I belonged and where my heart belonged. But yeah, really respected those guys and loved the time there.”
SCHEYER NOT ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT LOVE
Scheyer fielded three questions about Caleb Love, Duke’s former rival at North Carolina, and not one about another Wildcat.
Scheyer commented about the balance around Love that makes Arizona dangerous.
“He’s their leading scorer and leads them in assists,” Scheyer said of Love. “He’s obviously a key player for them. The thing that he does, he can shoot shots at any time, and he can hit shots at any time. I think he’s an improved passer, somebody that’s not afraid.
“He’s a really good player, so that challenge is there for our guys. But they have challenges way beyond him. They put five guys on the floor that can all score and hurt you. But he’s had a really good year, and it’s going to be a tough matchup.”
LLOYD INTERRUPED VACATION TO LAND LOVE
Lloyd said he took a break from a family vacation at Puerto Vallarta in 2023 to return to Tucson because Love and his family wanted to visit the campus before Love committed to the program.
“My wife flew down and right when she landed, I said I’m going back to Tucson for another day,” Lloyd said. “So it was a pretty funny story, but it was an awesome trip. Went back, had a great visit with them, and he committed. Listen, it’s been an awesome experience.”
Love was much maligned for his shooting in last season’s Sweet 16 loss to Clemson — 5 of 18 from the field and 0 of 9 from 3-point range — and his struggles putting the ball in the basket in the first half of this season.
Lloyd knows of the criticism Love received from those on social media.
“It’s been an awesome experience, and it’s something I would do 100 times over again,” Lloyd said of his time with Love the last two season. “I think if I do it again, I could even do it better and help him out more. He’s an awesome person. I have not seen many 22-, 23-year-olds that have had to endure what he’s had to endure in his life, and he continues to show up every day.
“And I’ve never had a bad experience with him with attitude, body language, talking back, anything like that. That’s the real Caleb Love. I get to know the real Caleb Love. You guys know a perception of what Caleb Love is in what you see on the court. I think a lot of the assessments of him are unfair, but that’s the reality he has to live with, and he’s handled it really well.”
CAT CLAWS
Love acknowledged that he paused when asked by TBS’s Andy Katz about Duke following Arizona’s win over Oregon to avoid bulletin-board material. “I didn’t want to give them no fuel or bulletin board material. I just wanted to focus on what this group got to do and not give them anything that they can feed off of,” he said. … The Sweet 16 includes includes eight programs that have won at least one national championship — Arizona, Arkansas, Duke, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan State and Michigan. None of the programs that won the past eight national championships are still around. — UConn, Kansas, Baylor, Virginia, Villanova and North Carolina. … None of Arizona’s starters began their careers with the Wildcats. Top reserves Veesaar, KJ Lewis and Carter Bryant are original Wildcats, however. … The top seven teams in the NET ratings are still going, beginning with Duke at No. 1. The lowest-ranked team still alive is Arkansas at No. 40. … Lloyd brought up an interesting stat Arizona Interim Associate A.D. for Strategic Communications Nathan Wiechers told him. “Nate, our SID, told me only seven teams have made three out of the past four Sweet 16s, and we’re one of them,” Lloyd said. “It’s really hard to win that second game and get to a Sweet 16. And once you’re here, you’ve got to take a breath and you’ve got to come out and be ready for the next fight.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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