In the new age of college basketball, blue bloods are in a better position than any other team to achieve greatness. NIL has given them the opportunity to spent the enormous sums of money that they receive each year from donors. There is always added pressure for them to win national championships. There are no rebuilding seasons. Every team will give their very best to try to beat them. They are well aware of these problems and usually thrive in achieving at least moderate success. However, a serious cramping issue has one team struggling to keep their best players on the floor: that’s not a usual problem.
Serious Cramping Issue: College Basketball Blue Blood Struggles
Banchero
Two years ago, Duke star Paolo Banchero, the eventual number one overall pick in the NBA draft, struggled to stay on the floor early in the season. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, with the help of the sports medicine team, committed to solving this problem by bringing in scientists to help determine the reason behind it. There is a lot of scientific information that is frankly above my pay grade. However, what you need to know is that they discovered a sweating problem that could be solved by changing the drink that Banchero used. The problem solved itself over time and they were able to make a run to the Final Four.
Week 1
Flash forward to Monday, November 4th, 2024. Cooper Flagg debuts against Maine, where Flagg is from. He had such an impressive debut, even considering he was one of the most highly touted prospects to walk through the doors at Duke. Late in the game, every person in the arena held their breath. Cooper Flagg laid on the ground holding his leg. Could this be the injury that derails his season before it even began?
They stretched him out and he walked off the floor. Every person breathed a sigh of relief: it was just cramps.
Duke played their next game against Army and Flagg was dominating again. Army couldn’t contain him in the first half, but the second half he was contained. However, it wasn’t by any player on the opposing team. Flagg dealt with serious cramping problems for the entire second half against Army. Jon Scheyer was less than thrilled, to say the least.
“We got to help him. I’m not happy about it, for him. We’ve got to help him, and we will. And right after this, I can promise you I’m going to be meeting [with staff]. I don’t care if it’s all night”
Tuesday, November 12th vs. Kentucky
It appeared to work early. Flagg was able to play all the way down the stretch against Kentucky on Tuesday, an extremely important matchup for Duke and the ACC. He looked slightly fatigued, but played the whole game. Maybe the problems with cramping are behind them, as they had their star for the whole game.
Yet, another star freshman, Kaman Maluach, who played this summer in the Olympics for South Sudan, missed significant time in the second half for cramping. People who watched that game understood the importance of Maluach for the Blue Devils. When he was playing, they were able to get much simpler buckets and had strong defense under the rim. He was crucial in their ability to obtain a 9 point lead at halftime, 46-37. Duke lost against Kentucky on Tuesday 77-72. They needed easy buckets and stops. They couldn’t get either in the second half and still had a good chance of winning the game.
One thing is abundantly clear: Duke has a serious cramping issue. It is not revolving around one player. It is safe to say that it is affecting their ability to win games early in the season. There is time to figure this out, but something is happening before and during the game that needs to be examined. These are young men in peak athletic shape who can’t play for 40 minutes indoors. I am not downplaying the physical exertion, but cramping is not an issue that shows up virtually anywhere else in NBA or college basketball.
The Last Word
Duke will compete for a national championship this season, if they are able to stay healthy. Jon Scheyer promises to look at the program and try to figure it out. He needs to because this team has a real chance. And most importantly, these young athletes need to stay healthy. This includes the 24-25 Blue Devils and every version of the team in the future.
It’s good that Scheyer is working on fixing this, because it would be a shame if the serious cramping issues continue to affect big matchups, including potential NCAA tournament games.
