LOL

 

Eh, I wouldn’t come down too hard on a 14/15 year old kid for getting excited about a free ride offer for basketball.

 

Wait...you think I'm laughing at him? There is a better chance of Maine joining the ACC than Flagg ending up at Albany. Or even Bryant, which was his first offer. He will be able to go to any school he wants.

I get throwing the offer out there. I'm sure everyone in the northeast will throw one his way just to say they did.

 

Shoot. Your. Shot.

I don't want to get dark here, but...2025 is a long time from now. Maybe he gets hurt or something. Nothing serious, but enough to maybe knock him off the high-major radar. Or the more cheery flip side: he goes high-major, doesn't work, looks to transfer down. As a school, try to establish that relationship now in case an opportunity pops up later.

It's free to offer.

 

Oh I know. I'm well aware of all that. And I think mid/low major schools should absolutely throw some offers at those top kids. It just really struck me as funny.

Anyway, I know they have already heard from schools in the Big East, Big Ten and ACC. And not your cellar dwellers either. And by heard from, I mean phone calls to coaches, not just an email and a questionnaire. His mom is also one of his AAU coaches so she is able to be contacted as well.

 

Don't want, NEED the Maine folklore on this kid.

Please update w/ his July AAU box scores this August.

 

For those of you who don't know.....Cooper's mother played for the University of Maine....and his AAU coach is UMaine alum Andy Bedard. He plays for Nokomis HS which is about 30-40 minutes from Orono down I-95. All of this means nothing in regard to his recruiting which will include a slew of high major offers....you just don't see a player like that in Maine too often.

 

Not to play into the " Maine folklore" on this kid.....but since this is fresh here's an article on last night's game.....Flagg had 30 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

Boys basketball: Nokomis crushes Brewer in rematch of A North’s top two teams

Cooper Flagg scores 30 while brothers Ace and Hunter add 10 apiece, leading Warriors to runaway victory.

www.centralmaine.com

 

I remember when Binghamton was the very first school to offer a scholarship to this center from Maret HS. They had recruited Marlon Beck from the same school and must have seen this player early on in his career. He eventually blew up and Binghamton didn't stand a chance. It was Luka Garza.

 

 

Ace would be a very good AE player.

 

So...someone explain to me why Barron couldn't extend that goodwill offer 6 months ago? He might have lost his job regardless, but it shouldn't take the interim coach realizing that's always a good idea.

 

No clue. Honestly, they should have been offered last year when they were in 8th grade.

 

Did Maine offer Nick Fiorillo out of high school?

 

Don't think he had any offers

 

As a follow-up to Cooper Flagg mania in the State of Maine.....this is a video of the crowd at the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday night to see him win the Northern Maine Class A Championship vs. Brewer. He had 27 points & 12 rebounds in the game. Attendance was estimated at 4,400.

 

Nice to see a full house.

 

Cooper Flagg brought his show to the big city today.....and Nokomis beat Falmouth 43-27 in front of 5,000 at Cross Insurance Arena. He had 22 points and 16 rebounds.

– Boys’ basketball: Cooper Flagg leads Nokomis to its first state championship

www.centralmaine.com

 

Can't be provincial about Cooper Flagg. If you want to see him develop as much as possible, you have to root for him to go to a high-powered prep school program as soon as possible. He'll never be tested in Maine. He's far too good for the competition right now.

 

It's now public knowledge so I can say something...the Flagg twins will be heading to Montverde Academy in Florida. As we all expected and anticipated, they will look to continue their growth at a school that has quite a history. Cade Cunningham, the #1 pick in the last NBA draft is an alum and seniors this year committed to Duke, Indiana, Memphis and they have 5 players selected for the Jordan Brand showcase to be held in Chicago. And Montverde also won the national title last year.

Montverde athletics

 

I almost asked this question earlier this season, somewhat rhetorically, "How soon until they're off to private school?" Now we have the answer.

 

UM offered the Flagg twins & Estrella.....all are going prep and looking at high major hoops. This whole misguided dream that some Mainers have of building a program with Maine players is such a crock. Yeah....UM can build a D1 team with State O'Maine walk-ons. Maybe some want UM to offer all of the D2 and D3 talent in the state?

I don't mean to rain on the Flagg family parade....we all knew this was their path. Good luck to them.....yes, it will be great to see Maine natives go "big time" although I really won't have much of a vested interest in looking up Montverde box scores.

 

Kids can play at 3 colleges now if they want, so never say never on a homecoming if things don't work out. Still a good idea ot always keep the lines of communication with those guys open, even if you know they're not going to come play for you. Any coach from a smaller state like Maine, or if you're from the same town as a big time player should be doing that anyway...just good business.

On the just taking in state Maine guys who are D2/D3...well that's what everyone thought of Nick Fiorillo, right? No he's not a world beater, but come on he's serviceable. If there's some transferrable skills, the line between D1 in the AE and D2/D3 is pretty thin. Making those types walk ons or end of bench development scholarship guys and being patient is another. That one in state kid a few years back...Moss? He had skills and talent that could have been honed into something good I thought...but, he probably just wanted to take 15-20 shots a game, and that's why he's playing where he's now playing.

I'm confident Markwood has a good eye anyway. Trae Bell-Haynes had one other American school watching him before UVM got to him I believe. He's a guy who had he not gotten the offer, maybe he gets a stateside prep post-grad year, but he could have just as easily ended up at a Canadian college. I believe Markwood was lead on Drew Urquhart too...he took some time but was a very solid player. Not to mention Northeastern and Maine were solid when he was around, so I think it's safe to say if he sees an in-state kid he and his staff like, there's potential there and not just a handout to keep in-staters happy.

 

Mom played D1 basketball so she's going to know how to navigate this stuff for her kids.

But, ultimately it just comes down to the fact that Cooper Flagg is the real deal- kid is a beast and incredibly talented. If he keeps ascending at his current pace you're talking Duke/Gonzaga/McDonald's game, etc. He's a 6"8" SG as a 9th grader.

 

Cooper Flagg offered by UCLA tonight....



This follows a recent offer by Iowa....he will be able to name the program that he wants to play for.

 

Seriously?

I saw a Tweet the other day that Duke had Scheyer and it's entire staff watching him, Kentucky assistants, and Baylor HC Scott Drew + assistants were watching him. He's a 9th grader.

But yeah, this is someone that's tracking to be a McDonalds All-American, play anywhere type of prospect.

 

There's no doubt. Pretty sure I had said as much a year or 2 ago. This kid is special.

 

Having seen Flagg play in person, I could not agree more.

 

At this point Maine needs to be working to secure a date somewhere between 2025-2029 in Portland at their arena and whatever team Flagg ends up on. Or organize one of those MTEs in Portland with his team, another power opponent, and like a regional team maybe A10 and up that's cool with doing neutral site (and probably the deal is they'd play Maine, and the other P5 you get, where Maine plays Flagg's team and then Flagg's team and the other P5 play one another).

That or do a 2 or 3 for 1...I believe UNH got Florida to come play them in Durham because of Matt Bonner after playing down at Florida a few times.

 

Could be a good arena opener.

 

Depends on seating capacity of the new arena. Schools like Duke/UCLA, etc., command huge appearance fees to play at mid-majors in N-L games to show off a local player. If memory serves, Syracuse had an Albany-area player (Craig Forth) on the team, the starting center, during the time of Carmelo Anthony's one season. Syracuse, only about 140 miles away from Albany, agreed on a 4-for-1, with the one game in Albany at that city's 15,000-seat arena. Syracuse reaped a $200,000 (reported by local news outlets) guarantee to come to Albany to play the game. Tickets were vastly overpriced and only 8,200 attended. Albany barely broke even on the game.
If Duke, or some other ACC school eventually gets Flagg, the likelihood is that closest it will come to Maine will be games at Boston College.

 

Cooper Flagg's Maine United played the Boozer twins yesterday....they got crushed 72-47. Here are the highlights....mostly just offensive highlights of the stars....

The redheaded kid for Maine is 6-7 Landon Clark of Bangor. He is a 2024 reclassifying as a 2025 assuming he is adding a year of prep. He is going to be a D1 talent in his own right....I actually think he is a more polished player offensively than Ace Flagg. If UMaine could round up all of the talent currently playing HS ball in the state....they would end up being a Top 25 team.

 

IF Maine could round up all of the talent currently playing HS (does that include prep schools, too?) in the state ... they would end up being a Top 25 team.
Yes, and if I won PowerBall this week, I'd be a millionaire.
Same chance of each happening.

 

The Michigan Wolverines are the latest to offer Flagg per twitter.