It was a hard decision to make. For a while, at least.

The summer before Ace Flagg’s senior year was nearing its end, as was the time to make a decision on his college basketball future. He had plenty of options to choose from — Division I colleges from across the country had made their pitches.

One, though, always stood out.

“When I started weighing all the options and everything that it meant to me, I think it became pretty obvious, pretty quickly,” he said. “I knew I wanted to come home.”

It’s been nearly two months since the Newport native announced his commitment to the University of Maine men’s basketball team.

It made news around the country, and fans celebrated when Flagg made his homecoming official. After all, Ace and his twin brother, Cooper — a freshman star at Duke — have captivated the state since their high school debuts at Nokomis Regional High three years ago.

“I liked everything about it. It was great to see the attention it got, and all the support and love from all the Mainers,” he said. “It was amazing. It helped me so much. It made the whole thing a lot easier. I’ve been blessed to be able to play in Maine and have the support of everyone there.”

Flagg feels fortunate, as does his future team.

“I just love what he brings to the table, in terms of his toughness, his basketball IQ, his inside-out skill set,” Maine coach Chris Markwood said. “He’s our type of guy. He’s a Maine guy, hard-working, tough, hard-nosed and a great feel for the game.”

The announcement, though, was only part of what’s been an eventful season for Flagg. He’s also at his third school in four years, playing his senior year for Greensboro Day School in Greensboro, North Carolina. He’s adjusting to life without Cooper, on the court without his brother for the first time.

Everything has been new: the environment, teammates, coaches and friends. He’s had to learn a new game, one that’s going to better prepare him for the college level that awaits him, and embrace a new role as a team leader.

“So far, so good,” Flagg said in a phone interview this week. “I wouldn’t say I was anxious. More just interested … to see what it would be like.

“It’s been a smooth transition, and I honestly feel like I’ve been here longer than I have.”

‘He’s unique’

Flagg said Greensboro reminds him more of the schools he grew up attending than Montverde Academy in Florida did.

“It feels a lot more like a public school, almost,” he said. “Greensboro has a more open kind of feel to it. … (There are) a lot of local kids, and not a lot of kids from all over the country.”

The kid from Maine, however, can only blend in so much.

“They do like to call me a Yankee, that is true,” he said. “They like to try to be country boys, but I tell them north is country, south isn’t. Which they don’t like.”

Flagg has made it a point to ingratiate himself with not just the team, but the community. Several of his closest friends aren’t basketball players. When Greensboro coach Freddy Johnson hosted a rec league with teams of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, he asked Ace to work with a couple of the teams. Flagg instead spent hours working with all six.

“He’s unique,” Johnson said. “I like being around him, because he’s just such a good kid.”

He’s also had to adjust to not sharing the court with Cooper for the first time since middle school. Flagg said there’s now more on his shoulders, which can help him as he prepares for college.

“Playing with Cooper makes the game easier,” Flagg said. “After playing with him for so long, not having him just makes everything tougher. You have to do a lot more on your own when you don’t have a player like him with you. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s going to push me to be even better than I would have been before.”

Being Cooper’s brother, let alone twin, creates a shadow that is tough to escape, given Cooper’s status as the country’s most coveted college prospect. Ace, however, said there were “no hard feelings at all” on his part as he watches the buzz around Cooper soar.

“I’m super proud of him and everything he’s doing. He deserves everything that he’s got, he’s worked so hard. Seeing all this attention for him is just amazing,” he said. “I want him to succeed more than maybe he does. I have nothing but love for him and hope nothing but the best for him.”

Growing his game

Johnson didn’t have much of a scouting report on Flagg when he came aboard in July.

“I really didn’t know much about him, other than he was a good basketball player,” said Johnson, who earlier this month became the sixth high school coach to reach 1,200 career wins. “He has a lot of respect from a lot of different people.”

Johnson quickly saw the tools Flagg had, and the set of abilities that have helped him average 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game (as of Tuesday) while leading the 13-2 Bengals in minutes.

“His feet are unbelievable,” he said. “He has such good movement, he knows how to fake and get guys up. He can go around a 6-9 guy. … He passes like a point guard.”

It’s been a season of adjustment and acclimation, however. A pure forward who played as a big man with Nokomis and Montverde Academy in Florida, the 6-foot-7 Flagg has been playing more on the perimeter for a Greensboro team that likes to run and has four players around the center playing positions based on matchups.

“I’ve started to play out further, closer maybe to a 3 (small forward) than a 4 (power forward), and playing a lot out on the wing,” he said. “It’s one of the things that I needed. Playing that 4, 5 role at 6-(foot-)7, it doesn’t usually work out. I knew I needed to start transitioning outside and sharpen up my skills there.”

It didn’t click right away. Flagg was unselfish to a fault while playing with his new teammates, and Johnson spoke to him about taking over with the ball.

“Around game 5, 6, I reminded him that he needed to be more assertive,” he said. “He wanted to keep all his teammates happy by sharing the ball, and I explained to him that we’re not running five plays for him to catch the ball and throw it to somebody else. We want him to take it and score.”

The chat worked.

“If you saw him play the first three games and you saw him play the last three games, he’s a totally different player,” Johnson said.

A home state spotlight

It’s not as if Ace doesn’t generate his own hype and attention. Johnson said attendance at Greensboro games, both home and away, has climbed, and that the opportunity to cheer or jeer the player they’ve seen in stories and video clips online is likely what’s brought the fans out.

“He has his fan section that comes to cheer against him,” Johnson said. “We draw more on the road than we ever have.”

When he committed to Maine on Oct. 30, the news stretched beyond the state and even landed as a headline on ESPN’s homepage. He’s been in the spotlight for a while, but Flagg said those moments don’t get old.

“It’s definitely a little weird,” he said. “Growing up, you’re always watching games on ESPN. Seeing yourself on there is definitely a strange feeling.”

Flagg announced his Maine commitment on Instagram, sharing a SportsCenter post, and the post has garnered 215,000 likes and 710 comments. News quickly reverberated around the state and zipped through the Orono campus.

 

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“When the news hit, that was the big talk around the rec (center). ‘Ace is coming, Ace is coming,'” said Landen Chase, 19, a UMaine sophomore. “I had a friend who texted me, he doesn’t know a lot about basketball, but he texted me and his whole family was curious about why Ace was coming and what happened. It was cool. It was all around campus, everyone was talking about it.”

It’s buzz that hasn’t been there for a program that went 28-105 between the 2017-18 and 2021-22 seasons.

“They want to win (at Maine). It’s a winning mentality there,” Chase said. “People feel like, with Ace, this is going to step up our program and make games more enjoyable, and give us a better chance to win.”

That’s Markwood’s interest as he continues to try to build Maine into a contender in America East. Sure, having more eyeballs on the program is nice, and Markwood knows the Black Bears’ profile got a boost when Flagg signed.

“There’s obviously a major buzz behind him and obviously his brother, Coop. In Maine, those two guys, everybody’s watching them grow and evolve in the highest level,” he said. “I think everybody’s excited for Ace and for us, that we’re able to get a player of Ace’s caliber to come back home and represent our state.”

What Markwood is most interested in is what Flagg can do on the court, and how he can help continue the upward trend of a team that’s gone 36-39 since Markwood took over in 2022.

“He’s got a really good knack inside, he grew up as a big man, so he’s got great touch around the rim from 15 feet and in, and now he’s really added and developed his game around the perimeter,” Markwood said. “You’ve seen the evolution, and he’s still only scratching the surface.”

That’s Flagg’s focus as well.

“I’ve never played basketball in my life with the intention of not winning,” he said. “I’m trying to bring everything I can to win. That’s what I want to do.”

The pressure’s already there. Markwood said he won’t want to add to it.

“I want Ace to enjoy the process on his own journey, at his own speed,” he said. “I don’t want him to feel like he’s got to come in right away and be Michael Jordan. He’s got to come in and be himself.”

Whatever expectations await him, Flagg knows he’s ready for them.

“I look at it as a positive,” he said. “Being able to be recognized by anyone is a blessing. … I would never take it for granted. I think every day that I’m blessed for everything I have.”

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