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Jason Smith & Mike Harmon are filling in for Covino & Rich today and they are reacting to the news that Duke Freshman Cooper Flagg left their opening game of the ACC Conference Championship Tournament with an apparent ankle injury. His injury may inspire teams already assured of top seeds to rest their stars during conference tournaments to prepare for the Big Dance.
Jason Smith: “Do you even play your starters, or do you play them just a few minutes in each half so they can just get a few minutes and then you take them out? Because really, there is no scenario where this helps you. Yay, you’re Duke, you’re ACC Tournament Champion regular season, you win the Conference Tournament; what does it matter? Right like, teams don’t usually lose seedings by losing, teams like Duke, teams in the Top 25 you don’t lose a lot of seedings by losing in your conference tournament. You’ve done enough over the course of the year. So, I wonder if this is going to actually be a trend-setter...”