By Mallory Mattingly
The NCAA men’s March Madness tournament set a new record high in viewership after the Final Four match-ups this past weekend.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two Final Four games on CBS Sports averaged just over 15 million viewers, making them the most-watched semifinal games in eight years.
Florida took on Auburn and secured the 79-73 win. The game drew 14.6 million viewers, an increase from 11.4 million the year before.
Houston and Duke battled it out on the other side of the bracket. In the last minutes of the game, Houston rallied back and beat Duke 70-67. That game garnered over 16 million viewers, a 13% increase from last year.
Duke’s freshman stand-out Cooper Flagg helped pull fans to the Houston-Duke game.
Flagg, a 6’9″ 18-year-old out of New Port, Maine, led the Blue Devils to their 18th Final Four appearance. He scored fans’ interest when he began to average 20 points per game throughout the season.
In the Final Four game, Flagg finished with 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists, per ESPN.
In the final seconds of the game, a play allowed Flagg to have a go-ahead fade-away jumper to hopefully draw the foul and secure the win. Unfortunately, Flagg’s shot came up short, giving Houston the win.
Despite the missed shot, Flagg took it in stride and looked to the future.
“It’s the play coach drew up,” he told CBS Sports. “Took it into the paint. Thought I got my feet set, rose up. Left it short obviously. A shot I’m willing to live with in the scenario. I went up on the rim, trust the work that I’ve put in.”
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Duke’s head coach, John Scheyer, isn’t mad about that shot either, but he thinks he could’ve done more to put the team in a better position.
“I’m sure there’s a lot more that I could have done to help our guys at the end there,” Scheyer explained. “That’s the thing that kills me the most. The amount of game situations we’ve watched this year. We haven’t had the real-life experience all the time, but that’s something I really felt we prepared for. So I feel like I let our guys down in that regard.”
Despite the tough loss, Flagg can’t deny that his debut season was unbelievable.
“It was an incredible season, incredible people, incredible relationships that I’m going to have for the rest of my life,” he said with tearful eyes in the post-game press conference shared by Bleacher Report. “It didn’t end the way we wanted it to but still an incredible year.”
Flagg alluded to his return to Duke next year for a sophomore outing, but many fans wonder if it would be better for him to declare for the NBA Draft. Regardless, the student-athlete has helped grow college basketball and boost ratings.
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