RALEIGH – The ACC champions are going to have the reigning player of the year back for the start of its NCAA tournament run.

Cooper Flagg will play Friday against Mount St. Mary’s after missing Duke’s last two games of the ACC tournament with a sprained ankle.

He talked Thursday during the NCAA tournament practice day about his recovery process.

"I'm feeling pretty good. We have an incredible team, incredible training staff," Flagg said. "So we've been working through the steps of just getting back to 100%, and I feel very good. I'm very confident moving forward."

Flagg added later that he was "pain free," and that he's "rolled my ankle a ton of times growing up playing basketball, you're generally able to just tie my shoe and walk it off."

"It was definitely a little bit of a different feeling as soon as I rolled my ankle this time," he continued, "I knew it was a little bit more severe."

The frontrunner for national player of the year, Flagg had not missed a game until Duke’s last two. The 6-9, 205-pounder leads Duke in all five major statistical categories — points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, by averages.

Flagg went up for a rebound late in the first half of Duke’s quarterfinal victory against Georgia Tech and twisted his left ankle. He was helped off of the court before halftime and was moved around the back hallways of Spectrum Center in a wheelchair.

But X-rays were negative and the worst-case scenarios were ruled out. Flagg’s movements on the bench were dissected — he didn’t seem to be favoring the ankle too much — over Duke’s last two games in Charlotte.

As much as one can tell how healthy an ankle is from a ladder climb, Flagg seemed OK during Duke’s ACC championship celebration on the court Saturday night.

"Cooper, for us, this is about him being able to move properly," coach Jon Scheyer said. "He wasn't going to play if he was compensating or if he was -- look, no matter what, an ankle sprain, to say he's 100% (Friday), he has to work through that a little bit still. But he's not compensating."

The news is less promising for Maliq Brown.

The 6-9 center has dislocated his left shoulder twice in the last month. The first was at Virginia on Feb. 17, and the defensive wizard missed the following four games. He returned for Duke’s win at North Carolina, in which he hit two 3-pointers late in the game — doubling his season total.

But shortly before Flagg’s injury against Georgia Tech, Brown suffered another shoulder injury. He left Charlotte’s Spectrum Center in a stretcher because of the pain; he was on Duke’s bench for its last two games of the ACC tournament (as was Flagg).

"As far as Maliq goes, can't give you any more other than, look, he wants to do whatever he can to get back and have a chance to play," Scheyer said. "I'm lucky to be coaching all these guys where they have that attitude.

"I don't know if that's going to happen, but that's his mindset, that's our mindset to do everything we can to just give it a chance if we can continue to progress in this tournament."

It was at least notable that Brown was wearing a sling during the game against UNC but was not wearing one during the championship game against Louisville.

For Duke's open practice on Thursday, Brown again wasn't wearing a sling; but he also didn't participate in drills.