Everything was going well for Cooper Flagg, 2025’s number-one NBA mock draft pick, until the Duke Blue Devils clashed with the Kentucky Wildcats. From there, Flagg was caught in a whirlwind of issues that started with the Jon Scheyer-coached team’s loss to the Wildcats and has continued since as the Blue Devils suffered another setback. Meanwhile, at the same time, Dan Hurley, true to his characteristic, got his team to a better place.

On Monday, the Duke Blue Devils’ position in the AP preseason basketball polls rankings suffered a blow of 6 positions. The Blue Devils now are placed at the 12th position in the basketball polls whereas previously they occupied the sixth position. This must have not gone down well with Flagg, who was expected to uplift the Blue Devils from their misery after Coach K had resigned, and Scheyer’s reign was only taking shape.

Cooper Flagg’s misery continues

On Tuesday last week, Flagg’s Blue Devils battled against the Kentucky Wildcats, and despite his career-best 26 points, the team could not win the game. The Durham-based team lost by a narrow 77-72 margin. That came with its own repercussions for Flagg. The 17-year-old suffered a 24K blow to his NIL value. While he still maintained his top position on the NIL valuation list in the college basketball circuit, with a $2.6 million valuation, he had four competitors emerging in the race.

The four new millionaires in the NIL race were Braden Smith, Eric Dixon, PJ Haggerty, and Mackenzie Mgbako. While Smith is a junior at Purdue, Haggerty is a sophomore at Memphis. Similarly, Dixon is a senior at Villanova whereas Mgbako plays for Indiana. The four athletes saw a rapid increase in their NIL.

Smith had a NIL growth of 328K and he became a millionaire with a 1.1M evaluation. Similarly, Dixon saw a growth of 605K which pushed his NIL to $1.2M. At the same time, Haggerty showed a $805K NIL betterment, and Mgbako had an NIL increase of $1.4M. All this must have affected Flagg considering he had worked hard over the years to get to the top spot whereas the other millionaires’ NIL had just peaked recently.

Therefore, the NIL problems as evident from the AP polls, a loss to Kentucky, and now the Blue Devils drop in rankings are three of Flagg’s major problems from the past 134 hours, the time he lost the game to the Wildcats. Meanwhile, Hurley is taking his team toward the NCAA’s top position.

Dan Hurley looks to continue his successful UConn run

Hurley is keen on taking his team to a three-peat this season. Before the season had actually begun, he, in what many say, hinted at the three-peat at a UFC 302 event by pointing three fingers when the camera panned onto him. And the Huskies have shown this spirit since the beginning of the season this year.

In the short time that the NCAA has spanned this year, UConn played three games winning all of them. They defeated Sacred Heart, New Hampshire, and Le Moyne in their quest, and that too by blowout margins. The least margin victory has come against Sacred Heart in which the Huskies won by a 36-point gap.

On the other hand, the highest of them has come against Le Moyne, in which the Huskies won by 41 points gap. All this has propelled them to rise from the third to the second position in the AP polls, and Hurley now must be eyeing the NCAA top place. Hopefully, with time, the Huskies will get to their desired position. Meanwhile, things look difficult for Flagg, and perhaps it would be best not to put pressure on him and let him plan his next steps.