Duke’s Cooper Flagg Looked So Sad Leaving Final Four Loss on Golf Cart

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Cooper Flagg will likely finish his college hoops career without an NCAA championship.
The Duke standout freshman stole the spotlight in Saturday's 70-67 loss to Houston in the national semifinal of the men's NCAA tournament, finishing with a team-high 27 points along with seven rebounds and four assists.
But Flagg, who was on the unfortunate side of a late-game call and missed a potential game-winning shot, ended up walking away with the most bitter loss of his young career following the Cougars' odds-defying comeback. Flagg is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft and will leave Duke this summer after coming tantalizingly close of breaking the program's 10-year national title drought.
The 18-year-old was seen riding a golf cart with teammate Kon Knueppel in the Alamodome following Duke's Final Four defeat and had a sad and blank expression on his face:
Cooper Flagg and Kon Kneuppel couldn't end Duke's 10-year natty drought ⏳@Rivals | @RivalsHoops | @DukeRivals pic.twitter.com/kJV3SnQ7Tx
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 6, 2025
Keep your head up, kid.
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Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.
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