March Madness: Where does Cooper Flagg rank among the all-time great one-and-dones?

He’s the runaway favorite to be selected No. 1 overall in this year’s NBA Draft. He’s a finalist for every major national player of the year award. He has led Duke within two wins of the program’s sixth national championship.

It’s inarguable that Cooper Flagg has delivered an all-time great freshman season. The question now is how high he has climbed up the list of college basketball’s greatest one-and-dones.

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Is he already the best? Could he cement that title if he and his Duke teammates cut down the Alamodome nets on Monday night? Or are the likes of Carmelo Anthony or Anthony Davis still a cut above even if Flagg, too, leads his team to a national title?

Below is my attempt to rank Cooper Flagg among college basketball’s greatest one-and-dones. The ranking is based on what each player accomplished in their lone seasons at their respective schools and not based on their subsequent professional careers.

T10. Jahlil Okafor, Duke, 2014-15

With his 6-foot-10, 270-pound frame, massive hands and rare combination of deft footwork and soft touch, Jahlil Okafor is a throwback from a bygone era. He was a dominant low-post scorer who came along at a time when those were about to fall out of fashion at the NBA level.

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He was the No. 1 player in his high school class. He averaged 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds for a Duke team that won the 2015 national championship. He earned ACC player of the year and first-team All-American honors before going No. 3 overall in the NBA draft.

What keeps Okafor from going higher on this list is that he wasn’t Duke’s best player during its title run. He had 10 or fewer points in three of the Blue Devils’ last four NCAA tournament games as Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow and Quinn Cook, and even Grayson Allen made massive contributions.

T10. Trae Young, Oklahoma, 2017-18

For four-plus months, Trae Young was college basketball’s ultimate must-watch one-man show. He averaged a ridiculous 27.4 points and 8.7 assists. He led the nation in both those categories. He drew comparisons to the great Steph Curry with his impossibly deep 3-pointers, deft passes and mastery creating via pick and rolls.

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Young did everything he could to put Oklahoma on his back, but the burden of carrying a modestly talented roster proved too great. An Oklahoma team that cracked the top five in the country in mid-January of Young’s lone season lost 12 of its final 14 games. Opposing defenses blanketed Young, his scoring efficiency declined and his teammates were unable to provide enough support.

Young’s college career ended the most fitting possible way. He had 28 points, seven assists and a trio of 3-pointers in a first-round NCAA tournament against Rhode Island. Oklahoma still lost in overtime 83-78.

9. Kevin Love, UCLA, 2007-08

Here’s a partial list of the future NBA standouts in the Pac-10 during Kevin Love’s lone season at UCLA: James Harden, Russell Westbrook, OJ Mayo, Ryan Anderson, Taj Gibson, Brook and Robin Lopez, Darren Collison and Jerryd Bayless. That gives you an idea how good Love was in outplaying all of them to earn league player of the year honors.

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A bit doughier in college than as an NBA player, Love was a force on the low block at UCLA, averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds. He teamed with Collison and Westbrook to lead the best UCLA team of the Ben Howland era to a 35-4 record, a Pac-10 title and a berth in a third consecutive Final Four.

Maybe his most celebrated skill at UCLA was He was the rare big man who could

8. Greg Oden, Ohio State, 2006-07

It’s easy to forget how good Oden was before injuries derailed his NBA career. Oden displayed so much promise in high school and in his lone season at Ohio State that it wasn’t even all that controversial when Portland selected him ahead of Kevin Durant.

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At Ohio State, Oden was the national defensive player of the year, a chiseled 7-foot, 260-pound center who altered shots at the rim, dominated the glass and possessed the agility to guard in space. He averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in his one season with the Buckeyes, teaming with Mike Conley to take his team to the 2007 national title game.

Ohio State lost to Florida that night, but Oden was nothing short of spectacular. He hung 25 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks on a Gators frontcourt that featured Joakim Noah and Al Horford.

7. John Wall, Kentucky, 2009-10

Before John Calipari’s arrival, Kentucky had suffered double-digit losses in four straight seasons and had fallen short of an NCAA bid the previous year. A freshman class headlined by Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe helped Calipari orchestrate an instant turnaround.

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Wall announced his arrival in college basketball with a signature dance move at Big Blue Madness in October 2009, sending 24,000 fans into a frenzy just by flexing his arm and twisting his wrist. He then validated the hype, averaging 16.6 points and 6.5 assists, earning consensus first-team All-American honors and becoming Kentucky’s first-ever No. 1 overall draft pick.

While Wall led Kentucky to a 35-3 record and SEC regular season and tournament crowns, a scintillating season ended with a clang. The top-seeded Wildcats fell one win shy of a Final Four as they missed their first 20 threes in an Elite Eight loss to West Virginia.

6. Michael Beasley, Kansas State, 2007-08

While Beasley’s pro career turned out unremarkable, his lone season at Kansas State was the stuff of legend. He was unguardable while averaging 26.2 points and 12.1 rebounds and shooting 38% from behind the arc. He hoisted 35.7% of his team’s shots and still posted a 119.8 offensive rating. He had 28 double-doubles and 13 30-point games.

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Beasley’s Kansas State team went a modest 21-12 and lost decisively to Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA tournament, but those results should be viewed in proper context. When Beasley arrived at Kansas State, the Wildcats hadn’t made the NCAA tournament in over a decade and hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game in 20 seasons. With fellow freshmen Bill Walker and Jacob Pullen by his side, he brought Kansas State back to relevance.

5. Kevin Durant, Texas, 2006-07

Believe it or not, there was a time when it was rare for players 6-10 or taller to have the freedom to shoot it from deep, to handle the ball in transition or to make plays off the bounce. Kevin Durant was among the first to normalize that and to inspire the current wave of supersized wings.

As a skin-and-bones, ridiculously fluid 18-year-old, Kevin Durant became the first freshman ever to win college basketball national player of the year honors. He averaged 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds, awing audiences with his never-before-seen versatility and transcendent scoring ability.

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The major blemish on Durant’s collegiate resume was that he led his team to a good season but not an exceptional one. A Texas team laden with talented freshmen and sophomores finished third in the Big 12, earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament and got shoved aside 87-68 by USC in a one-sided second-round game.

4. Zion Williamson, Duke, 2018-19

The excitement about Zion Williamson began to build before he was old enough to legally drive a car. Standing-room-only crowds flocked to Williamson’s tiny South Carolina private school to see the 6-foot-7, 285-pound manchild. YouTube clips of his ferocious blocked shots and 360 dunks amassed millions of clicks. The rapper Drake even posted photos of himself wearing the 16-year-old’s Spartanburg Day jersey.

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Starring for one of college basketball’s most visible programs only accelerated the pace of Williamson’s ascent to stardom. Everyone from Barack Obama, to Floyd Mayweather to Jay-Z came to see the projected No. 1 overall pick with the size and power of an NFL defensive end and the footwork and agility of an NBA-bound small forward.

While Williamson doesn’t have the raw stats of a Durant or Beasley and he fell a single point shy of a Final Four appearance, his lone college season is unmatched in terms of efficiency and star power. He averaged 22.6 points on just 13 shots per game. He won every award he was eligible for. Duke went 29-3 in games he finished. And more than any other recent player, Williamson made viewers stare agape at a TV screen every time he took the floor.

3. Cooper Flagg, Duke, 2024-25

The legend of Cooper Flagg began to build before he came to Duke. He was the only teenager selected to train with the U.S. men’s national team last year as it prepared for the Paris Olympics. He looked totally at ease going against some of the NBA’s biggest superstars, hitting a flurry of impressive shots and drawing praise from the likes of LeBron James.

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So the expectations were high for Flagg this season. Then he somehow surpassed them.

Already known as a versatile defender, a willing passer and an opportunistic scorer, Flagg has leveled up at Duke as a perimeter shooter and a shot creator. The presumptive national player of the year leads Duke in every major statistical category and in some that can’t be measured by a box score.

Without a national championship, Flagg has not yet overtaken Carmelo Anthony or Anthony Davis as the all-time best one-and-done. But should Flagg finish the job, and do it in Carmelo-esque dominant fashion, it would be hard to deny the 18-year-old from Newport, Maine, the title of GOAT of the one-and-dones.

2. Anthony Davis, Kentucky, 2011-12

At the beginning of Davis’ junior year of high school, he was a 6-foot-3 guard with a solitary scholarship offer from Cleveland State. By the time he signed with Kentucky a year later, he had grown eight inches, evolved into an elite shot blocker and rebounder and attracted interest from just about every major program in the country.

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Davis may not have been Kentucky’s leading scorer during his lone collegiate season, but he was easily the best player on a 38-2 team that captured coach John Calipari’s lone national championship. The willowy 6-foot-11 center won national player of the year and national defensive player of the year honors after averaging 14.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.7 blocks. In his most memorable NCAA tournament game, he led Kentucky past rival Louisville, missing only one of his eight shots and finishing with 18 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks.

1. Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse, 2002-03

In his lone season at Syracuse, Anthony set the standard for future one-and-dones. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 22.2 points and 10.0 rebounds, unanimously captured national freshman of the year honors and led the Orange to Jim Boeheim’s lone championship.

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There was little doubt Anthony would be named the 2003 Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after he tallied a total of 53 points in Syracuse’s two games. He shredded Texas in the national semifinals for 33 points and 14 rebounds, then came three assists shy of a triple-double against Kansas in the title game.

When Anthony played for Syracuse, there was no NBA Draft age limit. Top prospects typically turned pro out of high school. Those who did go to college were viewed differently than the elite freshmen of today. They were often expected to acknowledge the pecking order and accept supporting roles behind veteran teammates. Anthony helped change that. The elite freshmen who followed increasingly became the centerpieces of their teams.