Flagg twins’ quest for improvement is not an indictment of Maine high school basketball
Many Maine substantial school sporting activities followers took Tuesday’s information that Nokomis of Newport twins Cooper and Ace Flagg had been transferring to national prep electricity Montverde Academy in Florida to continue on their basketball careers with combined thoughts.
Considerably deflated for the reason that they’ll no for a longer period have direct access to see the two freshmen exhibit the techniques that had acquired them acclaim in travel basketball circles even just before they led Nokomis to its 1st boys basketball point out championship this winter season.
But also thrilled to stick to the towering twins from afar — except if a winter vacation to the Orlando region is in order — to see how they fare against a regular diet regime of national-level competition.
But do the transfers of the 6-foot-7 Cooper Flagg — the 1st freshman in condition history to be named Gatorade Maine Boys Basketball Participant of the Yr and an invitee to this weekend’s Usa Basketball Junior Nationwide Group minicamp at the NCAA Division I Closing Four in New Orleans — and 6-foot-6 Ace Flagg reflect negatively on Maine high school basketball?
Not any a lot more than the existence of any of their potential teammates at Montverde will reflect negatively on significant school basketball in their house states.
Max Superior agrees.
A head mentor of the former Maine Central Institute postgraduate basketball team in Pittsfield and a faculty head mentor for 22 yrs with stops at Nevada-Las Vegas, Loyola Marymount, Bryant and Jap Kentucky, he sees the transfers as two gifted gamers in search of to optimize their possible in opposition to major-level level of competition on a day-to-day basis.
“If I had a precocious younger basketball participant, I’d want him to go in which he’d be challenged the most, wherever they are heading to have to work, in which they couldn’t be everyday and nonetheless be prosperous,” said Excellent, a Maine indigenous who now is retired and dwelling in southern Maine.
Fantastic coached 19 players who went on to participate in in the Countrywide Basketball Association, which include the likes of Caron Butler and Cuttino Mobley even though he was at MCI for 10 seasons from 1989 to 1999.
For the duration of that span his teams compiled a 275-30 record and gained 5 New England Preparatory Faculty Athletic Meeting championships with rosters that averaged virtually nine NCAA Division I gamers for each yr.
“A large amount of children came there to get even larger, harder, smarter, or perhaps for a position transform,” Excellent claimed. “Maybe they played ahead or centre in some circumstances and necessary to become a wing or even a guard.
“They desired to play versus better opposition on a frequent basis, even in follow.”
Montverde Academy will provide the Flagg twins — and Maine United AAU teammate Kaden Bedard, who presently is attending the faculty — similar opportunities.
Montverde experienced four alumni picked in the initial spherical of the 2021 NBA draft, led by No. 1 overall choose Cade Cunningham, the previous Oklahoma State standout now with the Detroit Pistons.
This year’s roster also is loaded. Dariq Whitehead, a 6-foot-7 Duke College commit, was named most valuable participant at the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game on Tuesday evening.
“They know they are likely to be taking part in against and with fantastic gamers, and as a college mentor you genuinely want to see that,” Good reported.
Maine has a low population in contrast with most other states as properly as a modest amount of superior college basketball players that make up the rosters for all groups from Kittery to Fort Kent for their standard 18-match normal period plan.
Nokomis dominated most of its opposition although heading 21-1 this winter season, defeating its typical-period foes by an normal of extra than 20 points for each game and winning its 4 Class A match online games by an common of 17.5 factors.
The Pine Tree Point out has in no way manufactured a indigenous-born substantial college basketball participant who performed in an NBA normal-time recreation, but Very good said the state’s recent higher-stage talent — like the Flaggs and 6-foot-11 South Portland junior J.P. Estrella, who is transferring to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, following period — is improving upon.
“I assume it’s acquiring a minimal greater since of AAU,” he reported. “People condemn AAU and you can obtain some outlaw applications that possibly don’t have the ideal desire of the kid at heart, but for the most section it gets the little ones participating in basketball additional and they get to play against good levels of competition.”
Educational facilities with a national prep championship pedigree like Montverde Academy recruit players nationwide, pretty much all in search of Division I higher education and/or skilled basketball futures. That suggests just about every follow is really aggressive, as is a hectic national routine from like-minded systems all over the state.
Montverde’s basketball alumni also involves present NBA stars Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and D’Angelo Russell, leaving Excellent to evaluate the Flaggs’ pending transfer to the Florida university as akin to a top higher university scholar from Maine transferring to an elite tutorial prep faculty in hopes of boosting his chance to review at an Ivy League higher education one working day.
“It could possibly be better for the universities in Maine if they stayed, but it’s not heading to assist them pretty as significantly,” Very good mentioned. “At the close of the day aren’t you hoping to upgrade their predicament?”