SPRINGFIELD, MA – JANUARY 16: Cooper Flagg of Montverde (32) dunks the ball during the Hoophall … [+]
Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 high school basketball prospect in the Class of 2024, is expected to announce his college decision this week, Montverde Academy coach Kevin Boyle said by phone.
“My understanding is SLAM is doing the announcement so I think they’re dropping a cover, with the school he selects on the cover,” Boyle said, adding he believed the announcement could come Thursday.
Kelly Flagg, the mother of Cooper Flagg and his twin brother Ace, declined to comment on a specific date when reached by text, but previously told The Messenger she expected “a decision very quickly after he visits Duke. That way, he can put it behind him and focus on what he needs to do to get better.”
The 6-foot-8 Flagg visited Duke this past weekend for its Countdown to Craziness and visited UConn earlier this month. He canceled a visit to Kansas set for October. His Crystal Ball on the 247Sports.com website is 100% in favor of Duke.
On the Duke visit, Flagg posed for numerous photos in Duke colors, including one with the school’s NCAA championship trophies, while his mother posed wearing a Christian Laettner Duke jersey.
Flagg was greeted like a hero at Duke. He entered Cameron Indoor Stadium on Friday amidst a sea of students cheering and filming him. He dapped up the Crazies on a walk around the court’s perimeter. And he sang with students while standing amongst them in the stands.
Flagg, who could be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has called Duke his “dream school.”
“Dream school obviously but there’s still so many more options that I want to look into and everything like that,” Flagg told ZAGSBLOG in January at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass.
On Saturday, Duke announced that men’s basketball coach Jon Scheyer had agreed to a six-year contract extension that will take him through the 2028-29 season.
Scheyer’s new deal came on the heels of a No. 2 ranking in the preseason Associated Press poll and a debut season as coach that included an ACC tournament championship and a 27-9 record.
“I’m committed to Duke,” Scheyer said. “To know that they’re committed to me as well and our staff — and the job they’ve done — is great.”
Still, UConn is the reigning NCAA champion and all indications are that Flagg’s visit to Storrs went well. Flagg stayed with 7-foot-2 sophomore big man Donovan Clingan, a projected lottery pick in next summer’s NBA Draft. One source told me Clingan and Cooper Flagg “speak often.”
Their mothers played together in the 1990s on Maine women’s basketball team under coach Joanne P. McCallie. She led the program to six straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1995-2000. McCallie later coached at Duke from 2007-20.
“We wouldn’t have taken a visit [to UConn] if he didn’t think it was a place he could see himself at,” Kelly Flagg told The Messenger. “He needed to get on campus and get a feel for the culture, and what the coaching staff was like in their environment.”
Connecticut and Maine are obviously both in New England, so there will is some regional familiarity for Flagg, who recently reclassed to become the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2024.
Flagg is one of three five-star prospects from Montverde expected to announce this week, Boyle said. Five-star forward Asa Newell will announce Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET between Alabama, Georgia, Gonzaga and Texas.
Five-star center Derik Queen is expected to announce Friday between Indiana and Maryland, Boyle said. Indiana was on campus for him on Tuesday, and Maryland is there Wednesday.
And Flagg will decide between Duke and UConn.
The NCAA early signing period runs Nov. 8-15.
“We’ll have all our six seniors done [with college commitments] and then they can just focus on the season and the team,” said Boyle, who has coached three No. 1 NBA Draft picks in Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons and Cade Cunningham.
Five-star Montverde forward Liam McNeeley previously committed to Indiana, and four-star guard Curtis Givens pledged to LSU.