After suffering an ankle injury in Duke’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal victory over Georgia Tech, Cooper Flagg’s status for Friday night’s game vs. North Carolina (as well as the remainder of the ACC Tournament) was instantly put into question.

Just hours before Friday night’s ACC Tournament semifinals game against North Carolina, Adam Zagoria reported that Flagg will not play.

Following the victory on Thursday, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer noted how it was a “longshot” for Flagg to play on Friday night. With the ACC regular season crown, and a likely No. 1 overall seed in next week’s NCAA Tournament, locked up, it makes little sense for Duke to push the star freshman in a game that isn’t “do-or-die,” per se.

Duke got hit with the injury bug hard on Thursday, as Flagg wasn’t the only Blue Devil to suffer an injury. Big man Maliq Brown re-aggravated a shoulder injury that sidelined him just a few weeks back, as Duke will be without both players when they take on the UNC basketball program for the third time this season.

This is a huge game for the Tar Heels regardless, as a win over the Blue Devils would likely secure their spot among the NCAA Tournament field. However, it won’t be an easy task, as Duke’s roster is still a very good one, loaded with five-star and potential first round NBA Draft pick talents to help fill the void.

Some fans will be happy to see Flagg not playing, but some of us (myself included) wanted to see if the Tar Heels can beat the Blue Devils as close to full strength as possible. A win against the No. 1-ranked team in the country would still be a win over the No. 1-ranked team in the land, but it wouldn’t necessarily have the effect that a win (with Flagg on the floor) would have.

While Duke is planning for the NCAA Tournament, North Carolina is trying to squeeze into the field, as Friday night’s contest between thw two bitter rivals will look a lot different than it did just a week ago.