Duke coach Jon Scheyer sounds incredibly optimistic that Cooper Flagg will be available early in the NCAA Tournament.

The phenom forward is the best player in college basketball, and he’s the backbone of the Blue Devils. To put it simply: Duke will go as far as Flagg can carry them.

That’s why fans held their breath and panicked when he suffered an ankle injury in the ACC Tournament. Initially, it looked really bad. He had to be carried to the locker room by two teammates.

Fortunately, disaster was avoided and it was only a sprained ankle.

Duke coach Jon Scheyer provides Cooper Flagg health update.

Duke fans and college basketball fans in general have been curious about whether the electric freshman will be good to go right away.

The Blue Devils open with the winner of Mount St. Mary’s/American and then would play the winner of Mississippi State/Baylor in the next round.

It sounds like Scheyer believes his best player will be ready to roll.

“I want to get Coop back as quickly as we can, and he wants to do the same…We’re hoping he can start to progress starting tomorrow with doing some on-court work and then build up to where he can practice later in the week. Our goal is for Friday. No question about it. I know that’s his goal as well. We’re just going to progress in the right way and still be smart about not doing too much in the beginning of the week,” Scheyer said Sunday night on ESPN after the bracket had been announced.

You can watch his full comments below, and let me know your thoughts at [email protected].

This is great news for Duke fans and people planning on picking Scheyer’s team to cut down the nets in the national title game.

Flagg averages 18.9 points per game, 7.5 rebounds per game, 4.1 assists per game and shoots 48.8% from the field. He also shoots 36.8% from three. That’s solid for a 6’9″ forward.

Could Duke win their first two games without him? Probably, but this is the NCAA Tournament. Upsets happen all the time. You can’t leave anything to chance.

Not having Flagg on the court would be a huge blow. Fortunately, it sounds like there is a *GOOD CHANCE* America’s best player will be ready to go by Friday.

Duke’s Friday game is slated to start at 2:50 EST on CBS. For the sake of college basketball and the tournament, let’s hope Flagg is out there. The sport is certainly better with him in it. Let me know what you think about his chances at [email protected].