By ADAM ZAGORIA
Maine natives Cooper and Ace Flagg will play a pair of sold-out games in their home state this weekend with national powerhouse Montverde (FL) Academy.
Montverde will play Gonzaga College High School of Washington, D.C., on Friday at Cross arena, and CATS Academy Boston on Saturday at Portland Expo. The games will be streamed on whou.live, and by Bleacher Report.
“Being able to come home to Maine and play in a big arena with a lot of support from everybody, I’m just really excited,” Cooper Flagg told the Portland Press Herald. “The basketball support in Maine is really good too. People go really crazy for basketball up there during the season. Since we travel so much and play a lot of neutral site games, we don’t get that as much.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to put on a show for everybody in Maine.”
Montverde (13-0), coached by New Jersey coaching legend Kevin Boyle, is ranked No. 1 nationally by ESPN.com.
“We’re playing two games in Maine,” Boyle told ZAGSBLOG in September. “At Montverde, when possible, we try to get games either junior or senior year where guys can play hopefully in their home area. I think it’s going to be fabulous for Cooper and Ace to be able to play in Maine at home. Obviously, there’s a tremendous amount of buzz about Cooper, not just in Maine but throughout the United States and possibly even the world right now. He’s just getting a lot of recognition saying positive things about him.
“I think it will be really exciting for me to see those guys home again, so I think it will be good for them and it will be good for us. It helps our school brand, too, where you have a lot of schools in the New England area that are looking for boarding schools that don’t happen to be basketball players.
Cooper Flagg reclassified and is the No. 1 -ranked player in the Class of 2024. He committed to Duke over UConn in October.
Flagg is the favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, where he could become the fourth No. 1 pick coached by Boyle.
He and his brother have deep ties to their home state. They played for the Maine United 16U team at Peach Jam this past summer, leading it to the championship game.
After the mass shooting in Maine in October, he Tweeted that his “heart is with Maine,” and delayed his decision for a few days.
Cooper and Ace helped Nokomis High School in Maine win the Class A state title as freshmen in 2022 before transferring to Montverde Academy ahead of last season.
Cooper signs autographs for young kids wherever he goes with the Eagles, and will likely be flocked by an army of fans at home in Maine.
Duke commit @Cooper_Flagg of @MVABasketball
signing autographs for a small army of young kids at Pleasant Grove HS in UtahCourtesy: Kelly Boyle pic.twitter.com/DGdKC1roG9
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) November 29, 2023
“It’s exciting for the boys and it’s exciting for our community,” Kelly Flagg, who has been consulted by Montverde Academy regarding the games, told the Portland Press Herald of the games. “I know that there are a lot of Maine fans that are going to be excited to be able to come and see them play, if they didn’t get a chance to go to Springfield (Massachusetts, in January) last year. They’ll definitely want to come out and see them in Maine.”
She added: “It’ll likely be the last time that Cooper plays that close to home for a really long time. “I’m doubtful of any of the (colleges) that he’s considering that they’re going to come up to Orono and play a game. It’ll be a good opportunity for any Maine fan that wants to get a glimpse of how much he’s grown and developed and gotten better.”
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