Cooper Flagg, Duke, Win 92-52 in VABG Debut vs. 1948 NYU and All-time Great Schayes

Update 11/27/2025 — Post-Game Report

RESULT

While NYU’s overall defensive ratings (Dunk Adj) are very average at +0 — giving most Duke players a 51–64 dunk range — the specific matchups told a different story. NYU was able to assign one of the greatest players in the history of college and NBA basketball, Dolph Schayes, to guard Cooper Flagg, using Schayes’ –6 Adj to hold the projected No. 1 NBA pick to a 51–54 dunk range.

The strategy worked for a half. Flagg was held to just one bucket and two rebounds, and the 26-point underdog 1948 NYU team trailed only 28–27 at halftime.

However, Duke’s backcourt — Kon Knueppel and Tyrese Proctor — both stood seven inches taller than their 1948 counterparts and took over in the second half. They repeatedly attacked the rim and ultimately outscored NYU’s guards 45–19, powering an overwhelming 64–25 second half to secure a 92–52 victory.

Schayes finished with 15 points and seven rebounds in the loss.

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Original Pre-Game Preview

Cooper Flagg’s Value Add Basketball Game debut matched his 2025 Duke squad — ranked 23rd all-time in the game — against 272nd-ranked New York University (1948) (see rankings and results to date by clicking here). NYU appears in the game because Dolph Schayes, who passed away ten years ago at age 87, is ranked the 61st greatest college player of all time, qualifying his team for inclusion as one of our “teams with an all-time great player.” 

All five Duke starters from this team are already in the NBA, an amazing stat, but four of NYUs players on this 1948 team also made it to the NBA.

While Flagg led this Duke team to the Final Four as an 18-year-old, Schayes was even younger — only 16 years old — when he led NYU to the 1945 national championship game. Unfortunately, no reliable statistics exist for the 1945 season, so the version of NYU included in the game is based on Schayes’ senior year in 1948, a weaker statistical season for the team. 

Duke goes in as a heavy favorite, as their +7 rating (see just below all their cards) combined with NYUs -19 rating makes Duke a 26-point favorite in this opening round game. The ranking is like the season ratings at www.kenpom.com, but while those ratings tell you how good a current team is compared to the average D1 team this year, in the VABG game that rating shows how much better or worse each team is than the "average great team" which is roughly an Elite 8 team that was also ranked in the top 8 teams for the season as a whole.

We will add results after the game is played to kick off the tournament. You can click on the game above to get all great men's and women's teams, except for now you need to click here for the 16 new 2025 teams we just created.

Here is the box score.

 

Pos	Duke 2025	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Pts, Reb,Ast,Ht,pro?
1-PG	Kon Knueppel	27	1	10	4	4	4	2	0	3	14.4 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 6'7 NBA
2-SG	Tyrese Proctor	18	2	4	4	4	3	1	0	4	12.4 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 6'5 NBA
3-SG	Sion James	4	0	2	0	0	6	1	1	1	8.6 Pts, 4.2 Reb, 6'5 NBA
4-PF	Cooper Flagg	15	3	2	2	2	7	2	2	3	19.2 Pts, 7.5 Reb, 6'9 NBA
5-C	Khaman Maluach	8	0	4	0	0	8	1	3	2	8.6 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 7'2 NBA
Pos	Duke Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Pts, Reb,Ast,Ht,pro?
1-PG	Caleb Foster	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.9 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 6'5
2-SG	Isaiah Evans	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	6.8 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 6'6
3-SG	Maliq Brown	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.5 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 6'8
4-PF	Mason Gillis	4	0	2	0	0	4	0	0	1	4.1 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 6'6
5-C	Patrick Ngongba	6	0	3	0	0	4	0	0	1	3.9 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 6'11
	18 Turnovers	92	6	32	10	10	39	7	6	19
Pos	NYU 1948	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Pts, Reb,Ast,Ht,pro?
1-PG	Joe Dolhon	5	0	1	3	4	2	2	0	3	JR, 6'0, 8.2 ppg NBA
2-SG	Don Forman	14	1	3	5	6	4	2	3	3	SR, 5'10, 11.9 ppg
3-SG	Joel Kaufman	2	0	1	0	0	3	1	0	2	SO, 6'3, 8.3 ppg
4-PF	Ray Lumpp	13	0	5	3	5	5	1	0	2	SR, 17.1 ppg NBA
5-C	Dolph Schayes	14	0	6	2	2	7	2	1	1	SR, 6'7, 13.7 ppg NBA
Pos	NYU Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Pts, Reb,Ast,Ht,pro?
1-PG	Tom Kelly	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	SR, 7.1 ppg NBA
2-SG	Joe DeBonis	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	SR,2.7 ppg
3-SG		0
4-PF		0
5-C		0
	18 Turnovers	52	1	18	13	17	24	8	4	13

Edey Card Debuts with 23 pts, 17 reb, 5 blocks and Draws 4 Fouls on 11-time NBA All-Star

The match-up of 6-foot-8, 11 time all-NBA player Dolph Schayes against 7-foot-4 2024 player of the year Zach Edey stayed close at 34-39 until there were 28 possessions left in the game. However, at that point Edey drew a forth foul on Schayes and New York University 1948 had to switch to put 6'1 Ray Lumpp on him.

Purdue pulled away from that point - winning 74-53 in the debut of both cards, and Edey finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. Much work is done to balance eras, including our "dunk ranges," and playing the game dispels the misconception among many fans that "shooting used to be much better" than it is today.

As an example in this game, NYC averaged hitting 25 of 86 shots, shooting below 30% for the season, and they were a very good team at 22-4 that had been national runner-up a few years earlier in Dolph Schayes freshman season. Below the box score of Purdue advancing is our preview of the game.

 

Pos	New York University 1948	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Joe Dolhon	7	0	2	3	4	2	2	1	3	8.2 pts, 6'0
2-SG	Don Forman	9	1	2	2	4	3	2	0	2	11.9 pts, 5'10
3-SF	Joel Kaufman	4	0	2	0	0	5	1	1	2	8.3 pts, 6'3
4-PF	Ray Lumpp	12	0	4	4	6	12	1	2	4	17.1 pts, 6'1
5-C	Dolph Schayes	13	1	5	0	0	10	0	1	1	13.7 pts, 6'8
1-PG	Tom Kelly	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	2	7.1 pts, 6'0
2-SG	Joe DeBonis	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.7 pts
3-SF		0
4-PF		0
5-C		0
	13 Turnovers	53	2	19	9	14	34	6	5	15
Pos	Purdue 2024		3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
1-PG	Braden Smith	13	1	4	2	2	4	1	0	4	12 pts, 6'0
2-SG	Lance Jones	7	1	2	0	0	5	2	0	3	11.9 pts, 6'1
3-SF	Fletcher Loyer	10	2	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	10.6 pts, 6'4
4-PF	Mason Gillis	2	0	1	0	0	4	0	2	1	6.7 pts, 6'6
5-C	Zach Edey	23	0	9	5	9	17	0	5	1	24.9 pts, 7'4
1-PG	Ethan Morton	3	0	1	1	2	2	1	0	1	0.7 pts, 6'7
2-SG	Myles Colvin	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	3.4 pts, 6'5
3-SF	Camden Heide	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.3 pts, 6'7
4-PF	Trey Kaufman-Renn	8	0	3	2	2	1	0	0	2	6.4 pts, 6'9
5-C	Caleb Furst	4	0	2	0	0	5	0	0	1	2.2 pts, 6'10
	13 Turnovers	74	4	26	10	15	42	4	7	16

First the setup for the game.

One reason we try to play each team once is catch any tweaks, and there were a couple of them for NYU. We needed to increase the Stamina to get high enough to cover all minutes in the game with only seven player cards. The +2 for Purdue and -21 for NYC lets you know Purdue could be about a 21-point favorite in this game - which we set up as the top newly created against the 16th best team - or overall the 232nd best team in the game against the 63rd of all time. 

The other change we made is flipping the Power Forward and Center 4th and 5th spot to line Dolph Schayes up against Zach Edey for this game. Schayes is obviously not as tall as Edey - coming in at 6-foot-8, but he was an NBA All-Star 11 years in a row so gives a classic match-up at center.

As for Edey, note that his 1-15 offensive rebound range is so strong that he will not only always get a "high rebound" reading, but he also will great the offensive rebound if the rebound chart gives one of the other Purdue players a chance for the offensive rebound but a "6" comes up on the 1-6 roll - which his teammates would not have in their range but Edey will grab.