For more than 39 minutes, the nation's most celebrated teenaged basketball prospect demonstrated why dozens of NBA scouts flocked to Atlanta to see him play.
Only in the final 20 seconds of Duke's 77-72 loss to Kentucky did 17-year-old Cooper Flagg finally act his age.
With Duke's nine-point second-half lead gone and the score now tied, Flagg seemed to sense it was his moment. He attacked 6-foot-11 Andrew Sarr off the dribble, used his body to create space and then started to rise for a mid-range jumper.
Everything was set up for Flagg to deliver a signature basket on the Champions Classic stage, but for one of the first times all night the Duke freshman failed to come through.