Cooper Flagg makes it five.

First Scheyer-coached ROY winner. Mike Krzyzewski coached four NBA Rookies of the Year in his 41 years at Duke (Hill, Brand, Irving, Banchero). Jon Scheyer produced one in his fourth season as head coach. Flagg and Knueppel were both 2024–25 Duke players, both freshmen, both members of the same Final Four team that lost to Houston in San Antonio. Scheyer recruited both, coached both, and watched both go top-five in the same draft. Now one is the league’s Rookie of the Year and the other was the runner-up.

First time college teammates went 1–2 in ROY voting. Multiple sets of NBA brothers and college rivals have made interesting ROY ballots before, but never until 2025–26 had two players from the same college roster, in the same college class, finished first and second. UConn’s Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon went 1–3 in 2004–05. Flagg and Knueppel went one and two.

Second-youngest ROY in NBA history. Only LeBron James was younger when he won the award. Flagg turned 19 in December and finished the season with 70 games played, averaging 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. He became the youngest player ever with a 35-, 40-, 45-, and 50-point game, breaking marks previously held by LeBron and Kobe Bryant.

Four straight Duke ROYs were #1 overall picks. Brand (1999), Irving (2011), Banchero (2022), Flagg (2025). Of the five Duke ROYs in history, only Grant Hill (the very first one, in 1995) was not selected with the first overall pick — he went third to Detroit. Every Duke ROY winner has been a top-3 NBA Draft pick.

A 26-point margin in a five-month conversation. The race between Flagg and Knueppel dominated the league’s rookie discourse from November to April. Knueppel held the betting favorite spot for most of March after a record-setting three-point shooting season. Flagg reclaimed it in April with the 51- and 45-point games against Orlando and the Lakers. The final ballot was decided in part by Knueppel’s shooting slump in the Hornets’ final six games — he shot 23.8 percent from three over that stretch, including the Play-In Tournament loss to the Magic.

The next conversations. Flagg now joins the four prior Duke ROYs in different statistical company — Hill, Brand, and Irving all became multi-time NBA All-Stars; Banchero made the All-Star team in his second season. Knueppel, despite finishing second, just had the most efficient and impactful losing-vote ROY campaign in modern league history, and he’s already a building block on a Charlotte team that improved by 25 wins. Their next college teammate to enter the conversation: Khaman Maluach, who played his rookie season in Houston and figures to be a 2026–27 candidate.