The torch has officially been passed in Durham. Last season, Cooper Flagg lit the college basketball world on fire with a freshman campaign that will be remembered for decades. Now, it’s Cameron Boozer’s turn — and the hype might be even bigger. Boozer isn’t just another five-star recruit walking into Cameron Indoor; he’s a 6’9, 250-pound force who carries the bloodline of NBA greatness and the hunger to carve out his own Duke legacy. The real question isn’t whether he can live up to Flagg’s historic season — it’s whether Boozer already has something Flagg never quite mastered.
Cameron Boozer isn’t Cooper Flagg, but he may have qualities that Flagg doesn’t.
Cameron Boozer is going to have a unique sort of pressure: he has to follow Duke’s Cooper Flagg, and Flagg just had one of the best freshman seasons in NCAA history.
Fortunately for Boozer, they’re not exactly the same player and there’s one area that Boozer, at least at this point, may be well ahead. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
At 6-9 and 250, like his dad Carlos, Cameron arrives at Duke with an NBA-ready body. Flagg by comparison is still just 18 and while he’s also 6-9, Boozer outweighs him by 45 lbs. That’s a huge diffferne already.
Like Flagg, Boozer can play all over the court and we think he’s an underrated passer, too, though it’s unlikely he’ll spend time at point as Flagg did in Durham and apparently will with Dallas as well.
Where Boozer may – may – have the edge over Flagg is in closing, which Flagg did not do very well. That’s not to knock him – keep in mind that he was a year ahead of schedule and, like almost all 17-year-olds, physically immature. He’s got work to do there.
And of course Flagg grew up playing in Maine before transferring to Montverde, where he was, for the first time, around great players on a regular basis.
Boozer grew up in Miami and like Flagg, his non-identical brother (Cayden Boozer vs. Ace Flagg) high-level basketball has been in his life from Day One.
The Boozers are used to winning in a way that Flagg has not been, at least not yet. He’s pretty ruthless on the court, so we think he’ll come along quickly in the NBA and be a dominant force, but Boozer may be better equipped for late-moments in big games than Flagg is now.
Either way, it’s going to be a rare treat to see these two compete in back-to-back seasons. We’re the luckiest fans in the world.
