You don’t have to be a basketball coach or an NBA scout to know that Cooper Flagg has talent. That’s obvious to anyone who’s been watching the Duke Blue Devils this season or followed Flagg at any point of his storybook rise from a small town in Maine to the biggest stage in college basketball.
According to people who have coached him over the course of that rise, however, the talent almost takes a back seat. It’s an undeniable and other-wordly kind of talent, to be sure, but it’s just one piece in understanding how Flagg has reached this point.
Several of Flagg’s coaches in Maine, from various stages in his career, spoke with the Bangor Daily News about what it’s like to coach such a generational player. And much of those conversations focused on things like his relentless commitment to getting better, his strengths as a teammate, his intelligence on the court, his love of the game and his motor — his drive as a basketball player and his unyielding desire to win.
‘You never arrive’
Kevin Reed coached Flagg as a 2nd grader, though Reed wasn’t even coaching a 2nd grade team at the time.
“I think he was in 2nd grade playing up with my 3rd and 4th grade group,” Reed said, reflecting on Flagg’s time with the Black Bear North AAU team years ago. “But still, he had a motor and obviously he was better than a lot of the 3rd and 4th graders even at that time in his life, to the point where I was questioning if the kid was really in 2nd grade.”
Reed emphasized that was a long time ago, and said that he sometimes wonders if Flagg “even remembers that group,” but he still sees echoes of that 2nd grade kid’s effort on the court today. And he is “super proud” of Flagg’s continued desire to get better. It’s that commitment and competitive nature that Reed remembers more than Flagg’s talent at the time.
“When a kid is talented, oftentimes, the kid will say, ‘I’m talented enough’ and cease to work to improve,” Reed said. “And from what I’ve seen over the years, even from afar, I see a kid who says, ‘I’m talented,’ he understands he’s talented, but he doesn’t stop there. He’s always thinking there’s room for improvement. You never arrive, and that’s that desire that you don’t see, that’s that competitive nature that not everybody has. And so I’m just so proud that he is continuing to grow.”
Flagg made Reed’s team better whenever he was on the court years ago. And the abilities and effort Flagg showed then are still visible in his game today, Reed said.
“As a 2nd grader, he plays — it sounds weird — but he plays the exact same as he does as an 18-year-old, meaning that he impacted the game on both ends and in every way.”
Reed cited Flagg’s ability to bring down a rebound and immediately push the ball down the court in transition.
“I saw glimpses of that, just only on a 2nd grade level. I saw the fact that he can dribble, he can pass, he can shoot, he can rebound. He made good decisions. He was a competitor,” Reed said. “I saw that in a 2nd grade body and now it’s like I’m seeing that just on a super sized level at the highest level of basketball in college right now.”
Reed, who was a standout player at the University of Maine, coached the high school girls team at Bangor Christian to the top of Class D North during the regular season this season.
“I believe that all the success that he’s having, he didn’t roll out of bed and just get that success,” Reed added. “That is a lot of hard work behind the scenes of becoming the best player that he can possibly be, that now everyone is seeing. So I’m just super proud of the kid.”
First thing on a coach’s Christmas list
Andy Bedard coached Flagg in club basketball from 3rd grade through his junior year of high school, including on the Maine United AAU team that turned heads on a national level at the Peach Jam tournament in 2023. He coached that team together with Kelly Flagg, Cooper’s mother.
Bedard called it “basically any coach’s dream” to coach Flagg.
“I mean, you have one of the most physically gifted and mentally gifted players on the planet,” Bedard said. “And he’s maybe a better teammate and person, and cares about only winning, so I think coaches would wake up every morning and that would be the first thing on their Christmas list, right?”
Bedard has worked closely with Flagg in his development over the years and knows the kind of effort he has put in to reach this moment, with Flagg and Duke heading into a Sweet 16 matchup against Arizona on Thursday night.
“To see the success continue with him jumping every single hurdle that we’ve put in front of him with ease, and keep raising that bar for him, and do it humbly and continue to embrace more and more challenges is just one of the reasons why he’s gotten to where he is,” Bedard said. “It’s all him.”
Bedard conceded that the coaches and others close to Flagg “might have pointed him a little bit in a certain direction” but stressed that Flagg’s effort is what has propelled his journey “beyond all of our wildest dreams.”
“He wants it so bad, and he was born to play this game,” Bedard said. “And his work and his sacrifices and commitment — it’s just great to be able to see the results like this.”
Bedard played college basketball at Boston College before transferring to UMaine, where like Reed, he eventually wound up in the school’s hall of fame. Bedard noted that Flagg not only responds well to constructive criticism from those around him, but even seeks it.
“He’ll say it all the time. He wants to be told how to get better, not what he’s good at,” Bedard said.
As individual accolades continue to pour in for Flagg, and predictions swirl about him potentially winning the player of the year award, Bedard said Flagg is focused on winning games, not awards.
“There’s no question he would trade all of them in for a national championship with his teammates at Duke, and that’s just fact,” Bedard said.
‘A basketball savant’
Matt MacKenzie has worked closely with Flagg for about seven years as his player development coach, helping Flagg to grow both the physical and mental aspects of his game.
“He’s really a coach’s dream,” MacKenzie said. “Because he’s got such a high basketball IQ, and he’s somebody who is craving information, he’s somebody who is craving improvement. And so he really wants to know what he can do day-in and day-out to be the best version of himself possible.”
MacKenzie, who played basketball at Husson University in Bangor, owns Eastern Maine Sports Academy in Veazie.
He described Flagg as an extension of the coach on the court, someone who can raise the level of play from his teammates both by example and by using his voice as a leader.
“It’s like a cheat code,” Mackenzie said, noting that the Duke freshman has always been very coachable.
“You don’t have to sugarcoat a thing with him,” MacKenzie said. “And you don’t have to be careful about how you say it, because he’s not going to take it personal.”
Flagg has always been “like a sponge” in MacKenzie’s experience, able to take information and immediately apply what he has learned on the court.
According to MacKenzie, Flagg is a “basketball savant” who has the ability to always be two steps ahead — not just competitive but brilliant.
Love for the game can’t be taught
Earl Anderson coached Flagg, along with his twin brother Ace and older brother Hunter, on the Nokomis high school team that won a Class A state championship in 2022. Anderson is a longtime Maine coach who currently serves as an assistant for the Hampden Academy boys team. He called Flagg a “once in a lifetime generational player” in an interview this week.
“What makes him easy to coach is he’s a great teammate,” Anderson said. “He makes all his teammates better, and when your best player is the best teammate, that just makes everything easy — not easy, but it makes coaching him and the team really rewarding.”
Anderson described the “whole package” that Flagg brings to the floor in terms of his basketball IQ, his vision, his scoring ability, the growth in his 3-point shooting, and his ability to finish around the rim, as some examples.
“But he’s a better passer than he is even a scorer,” Anderson said. “Which is a rare, rare trait in any basketball player in the whole history of the game. ”
Anderson said Flagg has “incredible god-given athletic ability” with his length, quickness and athleticism. But he stressed how he gets in the gym to get better each year.
“I mean he just loves every aspect of the game. He loves playing. He always has,” Anderson said. “That’s something you can’t teach.”
It was clear to Anderson every day in practice and games at Nokomis how special Flagg is and how high his ceiling could be.
“You know, by the end of his freshman year, it was clear that for his age he was as good as anybody playing the game anywhere at that age. And then he’s just continued to get better,” Anderson said. “It’s no revelation, it’s no hot take, but he’s the best player in the world not wearing an NBA uniform.”
Coaching the person, not just the talent
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer has provided insight about the experience of coaching Flagg at various stages in Duke’s season in interviews with other reporters.
After Duke’s final home game on March 3, Scheyer called Flagg “so unselfish” and highlighted how hard he plays, his competitiveness, his role as a “great teammate,” and noted that “obviously his ability is special.”
Scheyer said Flagg’s versatility allows him as a coach to “do a lot of different things,” explaining how Flagg can guard anyone on the opposing team. He was also asked during that March 3 postgame press conference about how lucky he feels coaching someone with Flagg’s talent.
“I think the talent speaks for itself,” Scheyer said. “Love coaching his talent, but I’ve loved coaching the person. He’s all about the right stuff.”
