When Ace and Cooper Flagg were rookies in high school, the twins helped Nokomis Regional High School of Newport win a Maine state basketball championship.
Now the Flagg brothers are each in the midst of a different rookie season, with Cooper Flagg taking the NBA by storm as a member of the Dallas Mavericks and Ace Flagg launching his college career at the University of Maine.
And while both brothers and their teams have faced some early adversity this season, they are each wrapping up exciting weeks and supporting each other from across the country.
“They have a lot of love for each other, and I know that both of them follow each other’s careers very closely,” said Matt MacKenzie, the Flagg’s longtime player development coach who has worked with both of them for years.
Ace Flagg was named the America East Rookie of the Week on Monday, after several of his most productive games yet for the Black Bears. The freshman forward factored heavily into UMaine’s first two consecutive wins of the season, scoring a season high 12 points in a win over Albany and adding 11 more in a victory over Binghamton. His balanced contributions in those games included at least five rebounds in each contest and four assists in both.
“I just thought his toughness just really shined through on both sides of the floor, and we need that from him,” UMaine head coach Chris Markwood said after the Albany win.
MacKenzie thinks Flagg is “really starting to figure it out” for UMaine in terms of the speed and physicality at the college level, and how to attack matchups and look for opportunities on the offensive end.
“I feel like against Albany, it was really nice to see him talking on the floor and showing a sense of leadership,” MacKenzie said. “And I think that we saw signs of who Ace Flagg can really be at this next level, and then he carried that same momentum into the Binghamton game.”
And Ace Flagg’s first rookie of the week award wasn’t the only history made by the Flagg family in recent days. Cooper Flagg also set a new NBA record for points by a teenager with 49 Thursday night in a loss to Charlotte Hornets. He also broke the Mavericks rookie scoring record Thursday night.
The franchise’s previous rookie record holder, Mark Aguirre, was also on hand Thursday night to have his jersey retired by the Mavs.
“You saw history,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said after the game. “We saw history at halftime, and we got to see a young man play the game at a very high level. To have Mark in the building and break his record was pretty special.”
Flagg, the number one pick in this year’s NBA draft, broke those team and league records on Thursday against one of his former Duke University teammates, Kon Knueppel. And MacKenzie was on hand to witness the performance.
“I just really loved his aggressive mindset from start to finish,” MacKenzie said. “Although I wish we had come out on top, I think that fans are seeing just a lot of different things from Cooper and really getting a sense of him seeing the game slow down. He’s just done a really great job playing with pace and allowing himself to dictate where he wants to go when he’s attacking spots.”
MacKenzie called that 49-point performance a “masterclass in shotmaking” with Flagg seeming to score from all three levels with ease, along with some big defensive plays.
“You’re just seeing a lot of really special things from him, and we’re not even at All-Star break yet,” MacKenzie added. “So I think that there’s going to be plenty more where that came from.”
Each of the Flagg twins will look to wrap up their successful weeks in games on Saturday. Ace and the Black Bears are away against UMass-Lowell at 2 p.m., and Cooper and the Mavericks are visiting the Houston Rockets at 8:30 p.m. And though they continue their rookie seasons in different parts of the country, MacKenzie said they continue to support each other despite the distance.
“Cooper and I talked quite a bit in Dallas this week just about how Ace was starting to figure it out and starting to play more like himself,” MacKenzie said. “And on a different level, Cooper has done the same, just continuing to learn and figure out the pace and spacing. And I think that they’re always continuing to root for each other even though they’re not around each other in person as much.”
MacKenzie thinks that both brothers wish they could spend more time watching each other play in person in Maine and Dallas.
“But again, they’re rooting for each other from afar, and they’ll always have each other’s backs in that regard,” MacKenzie said.