Cooper Flagg’s dominant month of January put him in elite company among men’s college basketball players of the last 25 years. 

Flagg, who turned 18 in late December, has elevated his game since the calendar flipped to 2025 from excellent to otherworldly. In seven January games, Flagg averaged 25.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game, a daily stat line that more closely resembles NBA superstars than any college player. Perhaps most notable for the NBA scouts who’ve closely watched every move Flagg has made this season was his improvement from beyond the three-point line: Flagg shot 43% from distance in January after shooting 27% in the season’s first two months.

“[He’s] generational,” Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes said Saturday after playing against the Blue Devils. “He can score off the bounce, he can score off the catch, he can post you up, he can score in transition … I’ve coached against some great players in my career, and he’d be one of them. On a list of Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose … Kawhi Leonard … he’s on that level, I think.”

The January surge has given Flagg a huge boost in what has become a hotly contested national player of the year race between the freshman Flagg and Auburn fifth-year senior forward Johni Broome. Both shined when they faced off in early December, with Flagg’s 22 points and 11 rebounds slightly outdueling Broome’s 20 points and 12 rebounds in a narrow 84–78 Duke victory. That, combined with Broome missing two games earlier this month with a low ankle sprain, has helped swing the odds in Flagg’s favor; he is now the clear favorite at -1050, per FanDuel, to win the Wooden Award after Broome entered the month as the odds-on favorite. Broome returned Saturday against Tennessee and put up 16 points and 13 rebounds in a hard-fought win over the then-No. 6 Volunteers. 

Flagg’s recent dominance also opened the dialogue for him in the pantheon of greatest individual seasons by a freshman in recent history.

The natural comparison (and one that has been made since Flagg officially declared to Duke more than a year ago) is Zion Williamson’s 2018–19 season with the Blue Devils. According to stats guru Jared Berson, Flagg and Williamson are the only two freshmen in the past 15 years to average 25 points per game on at least 57% shooting from the field in a single month (Williamson did it in both January and March 2019). While Flagg doesn’t play the game with the same amount of brute force and explosiveness as Williamson, his impact on the game because of his ability to pass and defend might exceed what Williamson did at Duke. 

Flagg is certainly in the conversation for best freshman in the one-and-done era. The others who come up most regularly: Kentucky’s Anthony Davis, Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, Texas’s Kevin Durant and Syracuse’s Carmelo Anthony. Head-to-head statistical comparisons between a wing who handles the ball like Flagg and a center like Davis are challenging, but in conference games, Flagg is contributing an absurd 0.38 win shares per 40 minutes. Davis was at 0.34 per 40 minutes in SEC play at Kentucky. 

The most historic one-and-done season likely belongs to Anthony, who lifted Syracuse to its only national championship of the modern era with a remarkable run of March dominance. Anthony averaged nearly 23 points per game in 11 March games in 2003, including 33 points and 14 rebounds against Texas in the Final Four. Those games were perhaps a bit more pressure-packed than beating up on ACC opponents in January the way Flagg has, but Flagg’s current pace puts him on a trajectory to be talked about in a similar vein to Anthony if he can make a deep NCAA tournament run of his own. 

After a deep dive, the best individual month by a freshman in the one-and-done era likely belongs to Durant, whose January 2007 is worth marveling at even 18 years later. In nine games, Durant averaged a preposterous 29.6 points and 13.8 rebounds per game, all while shooting over 50% from the field and nearly 40% from three. That included four games with at least 34 points and was capped off by 37 points and 23 rebounds against Texas Tech. Good luck to anyone, even a super talent like Flagg, trying to top those gaudy numbers. 

The next challenge in front of Flagg: performing well in college basketball’s most heated rivalry. He’ll open February with the first of two meetings this season against North Carolina, a high-profile opportunity for Flagg to continue to make his case as one of the sport’s top freshmen ever. After key late-game miscues in early-season losses to Kentucky and Kansas, Flagg is still hunting for a true career-defining moment at Duke. A monster showing against the Tar Heels would certainly qualify.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cooper Flagg Is Playing Like College Hoops Legends.