Ace Flagg has made it official: College basketball will be a homecoming for the Newport native.
Flagg, who’s playing his senior year at Greensboro Day School in North Carolina, announced on Instagram that he has committed to the University of Maine. Flagg, the twin brother of Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, broke the news with a post that read “Coming Home #committed,” with video clips from his freshman year at Nokomis Regional High, his sophomore and junior years at Montverde Academy, and his AAU tenure with Maine United.
The announcement ends speculation that began to pick up as Flagg started adding offers. West Virginia, St. Joseph’s, George Washington and Florida Gulf Coast were among the Division I schools that made offers to the 6-foot-7 forward.
Flagg averaged 2.6 points and 1.3 rebounds while shooting 54% from the field in 27 games last year for Montverde, which was undefeated and won the unofficial national high school championship.
Flagg has built a reputation as a tough inside defender and rebounder with an emerging scoring ability. In the Peach Jam tournament in the Nike EYBL league in the summer of 2023, he led Maine United over a Nightrydas Elite team that featured coveted prospects Cameron and Cayden Boozer, scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in a 73-65 victory.
Flagg expressed his fondness for his home state during the Maine Event, a January series that brought Montverde and the Flagg twins to Portland for a pair of games.
“It’s definitely an honor to be able to represent this state,” he said last winter. “If I could pick anywhere to live, I would live here. … There’s no better place, I think.”