The Brooklyn Nets, along with the rest of the teams expected to be rebuilding this NBA season, have kept a keen eye out for Duke freshman Cooper Flagg. The projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft has been a force for Duke, averaging 17.0 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.5 blocks.

Last night, No. 11 Duke faced off against No. 1 Kansas in the Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown. All eyes were on how Flagg and the Blue Devils would fare against Hunter Dickinson and the top-ranked Jayhawks.

Dickinson was ejected in the second half for a flagrant two foul Duke’s Maliq Brown, which opened up the doors for the Blue Devils to win the game. Unfortunately, they lost 75-72.

A big concern for Flagg has been his late-game turnovers. The freshman had two in a row in the final possessions of the State Farm Champions Classic against Kentucky.

Last night, Flagg tried to attempt the same spin move against Kansas that cost Duke the late-game possession against Kentucky. Flagg spun into traffic and lost the handle, giving the Jayhawks the ball back while being up one with less than a minute to play.

This trend aside, Flagg was still efficient, putting up 13 points, five rebounds, and three assists while shooting 5-for-9 from the field and hitting his only three-point attempt.

A big part of Flagg’s offensive game last night was the ability to play off of the pick-and-roll well. The 6-foot-10 forward was able to seal defenders when needed, but could also explode off of the screen to get past the switch on defense.

Flagg is a smooth finisher and demonstrated that with his athleticism last night. He could also knock down a jumper when needed but didn’t really do so against Kansas. Overall, it was a solid night given how many shots Flagg took.

The biggest question is how he can perform in the clutch. This is the third time Flagg has turned the ball over in a one-possession game with under a minute to play. It’s worth noting that he’s only 17, and still has plenty of time to develop, but the late-game IQ has to improve for the hype to continue.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo — State troopers from both Kansas and Missouri are asking for your help this holiday season to help children who won’t have the chance to celebrate the holiday season at home.

“Many of our troopers are parents, and seeing these kids in the hospital, this time of year is devastating,” said Corporal Justin Ewing, Missouri State Highway Patrol. “This is our ability as parents, as fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, to bring some joy to these kids, but it is also a great opportunity for us as the law enforcement world to step into the people that we serve and be able to meet some of these needs and to bridge that gap between the communities we serve our own agency.”

From now through December 9th, troopers are collecting new, unused toys for children of all ages for the annual Trooper Michael Newton Toy Drive.

Troopers have been handing out toys to children at KU Medical Center Pediatrics and the Ronald McDonald House for the past 22 years.

The toy drive was started as a way to honor fallen trooper Michael Newton with Missouri State Highway Patrol who died in the line of duty in 2003.

Newton was the 23rd member of the Missouri State Highway Patrol to lose his life in the line of duty and was survived by his wife and two young sons.

“His family knew that he was a great influence in the community, and so this was just a chance to bring joy to the community through some of our most precious citizens, and that’s our children,” said CPL Ewing.

Over the years, troopers estimate thousands of children have benefited from the their toy drive. You can take your new, unwrapped, toy donations to the following locations:

Missouri State Highway
Patrol – Troop A
504 S.E. Blue Pkwy Lee’s Summit, MO 64063
(816) 622-0800

Kansas Highway Patrol -Troop A
1220 S. Enterprise St. Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 782-8100

Murphy – Hoffman
11120 Tomahawk Creek Pkwy Leawood, KS 66211
(888) 642-8782

Pediatric Partners
7450 W. 135th St.Overland Park, KS 66223
(913) 888-4567

Pediatric Partners
2111 E. Kansas City Rd.Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 888-4567

They want these donations to benefit children of all ages, so you can bring books, puzzles, Legos, electronic devices and games.
They also have anAmazon Wish List.

KSHB 41 anchor/reporter Daniela Leon covers transportation-related issues in Kansas City. Share your story idea with Daniela.

Last March, Bill Self sat at the dais after an embarrassing blowout defeat against the Gonzaga Bulldogs that ended the Kansas Jayhawks’ season and admitted an uncomfortable truth: He had been thinking about next season for about a month. 

The quote was controversial at the time, widely misconstrued on social media as Self giving up on his team that had limped to the finish line. In reality, Self simply knew what had been obvious for much of the season: His 2023–24 Jayhawks were fatally flawed. They lacked the depth, three-point shooting and overall shotmaking necessary to make the deep March runs KU fans have become accustomed to. And in ’24 college basketball, building the plan to fix a roster via the transfer portal in the spring requires far more forethought than opening the portal the day your season ends. 

“When you don’t have as much firepower that maybe you’d had in past years, it certainly showed this year,” Self said in that March news conference. 

The firepower accumulated by Self in the weeks after that season-ending defeat was on full display Tuesday night in Las Vegas in No. 1 Kansas’s 75–72 victory over the No. 11 Duke Blue Devils, the type of statement win that validated the Jayhawks’ offseason reloading efforts. Kansas got 32 of its 75 points from its newcomers, and most impressively was able to withstand the final 10:26 without its best player, Hunter Dickinson, who was ejected after appearing to kick Maliq Brown in the head while fighting for a loose ball. 

“When you can sub guys in and out and not worry about the talent going down, I think that’s a big up for us,” senior forward KJ Adams, one of the holdovers from last year’s team, said. “You’ve got a bunch of three-point shooters, a lot of athletic guys that we’ve got this year.”

Kansas entered Tuesday with a lot to prove. The Jayhawks stumbled through a grimy win over the middling Michigan State Spartans two weeks ago. Before that, they laid an egg in the second half against North Carolina and nearly gave away a huge first-half lead at home. Kansas was an underdog Tuesday night (at least in the eyes of the sports books), rarefied air for any preseason No. 1 and certainly for a blueblood. This was the clearest possible chance for the Jayhawks to prove their mettle as a serious national title threat, and they delivered in a major way.

The nucleus of this Kansas team is largely the same as it was a year ago: Dickinson carrying the scoring load down low, Dajuan Harris Jr. setting the table and Adams being the glue that keeps everything together. But the Jayhawks’ margin for error in 2023–24 was so slim because of the lack of other options, and when Kevin McCullar Jr. went down with a knee injury, the Jayhawks largely fell apart. That’s the problem Self solved in the portal, with AJ Storr, Rylan Griffen and Zeke Mayo all added to give Kansas more backcourt juice. All three had their moments Tuesday: Storr was essential to the Jayhawks’ first surge to take an early lead, Mayo played a steady floor game en route to 12 points and Griffen delivered two massive buckets after Duke took the lead late.

Dickinson’s ejection could have easily been a major turning point in the game. Last season, it likely would have served as a reminder of the Jayhawks’ limitations. In this one, though, the moment was, in Self’s words, “probably the best thing that [could’ve] happened to us” because it allowed freshman Flory Bidunga to step up and helped the Jayhawks make steps toward establishing their identity. 

“This is too early to be a pivotal moment … but this team had no identity yet,” Self said. “I think we could maybe take some pride and say we’ve got more of an identity now because we kind of won ugly down the stretch, which we had to play that way in order to have a chance to win without [Dickinson] out there.” 

Things had come slower than many might have liked for Storr and Griffen, the team’s two highest-touted additions from the portal. To be clear, this was no perfect performance from the duo. Self noted postgame he still feels Griffen and Storr are “about a month away” from truly settling into the expectations of playing Kansas basketball. Tuesday’s showing more clearly showed the benefits of KU’s busy offseason—more options late in games, more pieces who can step up in key moments and more players you have to pay attention to at all times when they’re on the floor. 

Having survived an early-season stretch that featured three blueblood battles (North Carolina, Michigan State and Duke in the season’s first 23 days), the Jayhawks now get a chance to settle in at No. 1 for a while. The December schedule looks more manageable, although road tests at the Creighton Bluejays and Missouri Tigers won’t be cakewalks. Self should have time to further build up Storr and Griffen, keep incorporating the five-star Bidunga and fine-tune which late-game lineups work best. There’s room for growth, scary given how KU has navigated these early big tests. 

Have the Jayhawks racked up the necessary style points of a No. 1 team in the sport? That’s up for debate, and other teams have certainly made their cases for the top spot in a November loaded with top-tier matchups. But Tuesday’s win, and the way it came together, emphatically proved that Self’s Jayhawks have the pieces necessary to make a serious push at his third national title … exactly what Self envisioned as that 2023–24 season came to an unceremonious close.