Twitter Gold: A Brilliant Assist From Patrick Ngongba

As Duke’s young big man unveils another wrinkle in his game

There were some wonderful parts of Duke’s win over Mount St. Mary’s Friday. Khaman Maluach hit a new level and seems increasingly more at ease, less like a very tall guy who plays basketball and more like a basketball player. Tyrese Proctor shot brilliantly. Caleb Foster appears to not just have recovered his confidence but to have significantly elevated his game. And of course Cooper Flagg is back and looked just fine after injuring his ankle in the ACC Tournament.

As great as all of that was, it wasn’t our favorite thing. Our favorite thing in any game, when it’s well done, is passing. And in this game, Duke passed very, very well. There was one break where the ball movement was exactly what you might have seen from the 1986 Boston Celtics, the greatest passing team in the history of the game.

The single most impressive play to us, though, was this play from Patrick Ngongba to Flagg.

We’ve gotten used to Flagg’s brilliance by now, and when he was alone in the corner and Ngongba got the ball in the paint, of course Flagg was going to the basket.

What we didn’t expect was this brilliant and totally instinctive pass from Ngongba to Flagg for the dunk.

Flagg will get all the attention, but we can promise you this: this was a pass that would have made Larry Bird or Bill Walton smile approvingly. The more we see of Ngongba, the brighter his future looks. His instincts are subtle and superb.