Cooper Flagg, Welcome to the Duke-UNC rivalry - ESPN

The Duke Blue Devils host the first of two regular-season meetings with longtime rival, the North Carolina Tar Heels, on Saturday in a Sonic Blockbuster matchup on ESPN (6:30 p.m. ET).

North Carolina native Ryan McGee penned an open letter to the star freshman on behalf of his home state, where the two programs on either side of college basketball's storied rivalry are separated by only 11 miles.

Dear Cooper Flagg,

Congratulations on what has been a ridiculously great freshman season at Duke. At a basketball program that has long been an assembly line of legends, you have already managed to carve your name into the wooden framework of Cameron Indoor Stadium after only 20 collegiate games played.

You came to Durham with nearly unprecedented hype, as the nation's top recruit and already the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft. But you have lived up to the hype from the start, driving lanes, tossing up fallaway 3-pointers and throwing down backboard-rattling dunks in a campaign that will likely end with a truckload of Player of the Year awards sent back to your hometown of Newport, Maine.

But before we can cement your legacy, there is the matter of Saturday's scheduled contest against a neighboring team that wears a lighter shade of blue, making the 11-mile trek north from Chapel Hill to Durham. Yes, North Carolina, the flagship school of the state in which you now reside — and the measuring stick by which your Duke days shall be forever assessed.

Forget that you turned 18 barely a month and a half ago. How you perform against the team from the other end of Highway 501 will tailgate you through every birthday you celebrate from now on.

And to be crystal clear here, kid, this isn't overtyped sportswriter