{"id":703088,"date":"2026-04-07T10:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:38:24","slug":"mavericks-cooper-flagg-admits-interest-in-uconn-before-joining-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703088\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks\u2019 Cooper Flagg admits interest in UConn before joining Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mavericks\u2019 Cooper Flagg admits interest in UConn before joining Duke<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dallas Mavericks<\/a> star Cooper Flagg<\/a> made an admission about his collegiate career that related to Duke and UConn.<\/p>\n

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Flagg only played one year in college, representing the Duke Blue Devils. He shined as the top freshman in the 2025 class, racking up awards across the board. Even though Duke lost to eventual national runners-up Houston in stunning fashion, Flagg proved himself to be worthy of the top overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Other than Duke, there was another team that peaked Flagg\u2019s interest. Making an appearance on the Old Man and the Three podcast, the star rookie admitted that he was close to joining<\/a> Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought about UConn a lot. I mean, they were obviously really good, you know, when I was going through that process and had won a bunch. So that\u2019s really appealing to me. You know, I like to win above everything else. So that was appealing, but, and also it was in New England, like it\u2019s somewhat close to home, so it was definitely a close decision,\u201d Flagg said.<\/p>\n

What lies ahead for Cooper Flagg, Mavericks\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg would have been great for UConn if he didn\u2019t join Duke. Nonetheless, he has been achieving expectations in solid fashion as a rookie in the NBA. He is in the conversation for Rookie of the Year, showing that the Mavericks are in good hands with him leading their future.<\/p>\n

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Flagg has taken part in 66 games this season, averaging 21.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. He is shooting 47.3% from the field, 29.7% from beyond the arc, and 82% from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

Dallas has a 25-53 record on the season, holding the 12th spot in the Western Conference standings. They are above the New Orleans Pelicans and the Sacramento Kings while trailing the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks will continue preparations for their next matchup, being on the road. They take on the Los Angeles Clippers as tip-off will take place on April 7 at 10:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Related: The trait Lakers guard Luka Doncic had gave Mark Cuban full confidence in drafting him<\/a><\/p>\n

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Related: Mavericks\u2019 Jason Kidd gets 100% real on Cooper Flagg, LeBron James<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mavericks\u2019 Cooper Flagg admits interest in UConn before joining Duke appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,58019,225,686,149,4057,666,691,164,292,135,166,177,6,470,477,922,923],"class_list":{"0":"post-703088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball-team","10":"tag-cooper-flagg","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-dallasmavericks","14":"tag-duke","15":"tag-duke-blue-devils","16":"tag-golden-state-warriors","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","19":"tag-mavericks","20":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","23":"tag-sacramento-kings","24":"tag-uconn","25":"tag-uconn-huskies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116362997886608624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}