Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Why Cooper Flagg fits UConn’s model of ‘basketball people;’ Becky Hammon’s Willimantic roots, Jim Mora drifts into terrible territory, and more
When Earl Anderson returned to coaching at Nokomis Regional High, he’d heard plenty about the incoming freshman, and was already getting calls from major college coaches before Cooper Flagg had even played a game.
But due to COVID protocol and a knee procedure, Flagg didn’t perform in front of his new coach until November 2021, the eve of his freshman season.
“He was everything I’d heard and expected,” Anderson said, “but still, with his skill, his level, he has some things that not many people at any level of the game have. You get wowed, you get surprised almost every time you see him on the court. There were a number of those moments, and you never got used to those, even late in the season. You’d look at one of your assistants and say, ‘wow, did you see that?'”
Eight towns in central Maine feed players into Nokomis, located in Newport, and it’s an area with great enthusiasm for basketball. With Flagg getting 20.5 points, 10 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 3.7 steals and 3.7 blocks per game, Nokomis went on to win the state championship for the first time. Local supports lined two miles of road as the team bus made its way back.
A Hoosiers/Hickory story, Maine style. This is the basketball environment in which Flagg, who transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida, and his brother, Ace, grew up playing. Anderson, who had won Nokomis’ only girls state championship as coach 20 years earlier, considers himself an old-school coach.
Donovan Clingan, Cooper Flagg make touching tribute to their mothers during Flagg’s official visit
“So Cooper has no problem with old-school coaching, I can tell you that,” he said.
All this should only serve to make UConn fans, and the coaches, all the more anxious to add Flagg, 6 feet 8, considered the top prospect in the Class of 2024, to the Huskies’ realm. Two years ago, UConn would have had little chance. Flagg considered Duke his dream school.
Now, having visited UConn three weeks ago and canceled a scheduled visit to Kansas, Anderson considers it a “toss-up.” Flagg, visiting Duke this weekend, is expected to make his decision as early as next week. Recently, TV analyst Frank Isola, who has a radio show with Flagg’s mentor Brian Scalabrine, predicted Dan Hurley’s Huskies would come away with him. Just “something he heard.”
Hurley, who doesn’t usually do much recruiting travel after Sept. 1, has continued to get away to see Flagg, so he obviously believes he has a chance. And one of Hurley’s recent catch phrases is, “we’re basketball people here.” If UConn, which has won five national championships without many five-star, one-and-done level recruits, is going to go hard after such a player, it should be one who is “all about the basketball,” and all about winning, not the folderol.
Cooper Flagg fits that description, and all it implies, to a tee, his former coach says.
“Danny Hurley is spot-on with that,” Anderson said. “Cooper is all about the basketball. The hype, when you’re as good as he is, everybody in the world can see highlights, the hype comes with it. But Cooper is not in it for the hype. He deals with it really well. He has a great family and is very grounded. Even every game here, there were times when he said, ‘Coach, have (the media) talk to somebody else.’ He’s not in it for the limelight, he is just basketball through and through.”
None of this means Flagg is UConn bound. One has to believe the name-image-likeness factor is a draw, since his name alone will have earning power wherever he goes, much like Paige Bueckers. Finishing second to Duke would surely be a brutal disappointment, with all the work Hurley, Luke Murray and the rest of the staff has put in. But it would still be worth it. It is important that UConn, after winning a national championship, be in recruiting sweepstakes like this to the end. That’s the follow up, the next step toward a long, dominant era, to augment the players Hurley finds and develops with the right type of off-the-chart star.
Cooper Flagg could be that guy.
“We judge everything on highlights,” Anderson said, “but to really know what a player is all about, you’ve got to see multiple games, start to finish, and that’s where Cooper really shines. He does what it takes to make is team better, and help his team win. He’s just a great leader by example. He he was a freshman, and we had a number of seniors on the team, and everybody looked to him. He was unflappable on the floor. He is a great, great player, but he is even a better teammate.”
More for your Sunday Read:
Sunday short takes
*A reader e-mailed and pointed out this week that Becky Hammon, who has coached the Las Vegas Aces to back-to-back WNBA titles, has roots in Connecticut. Her late grandfather, Louis Stanzione, lived in Willimantic and taught at Windham High from 1953-84 and directed the school’s driver education program. Hammon must have inherited his patience.
* Not the first time such a thing has happened, but the WNBA didn’t allow much access to Liberty players after the Aces clinched the title in Brooklyn this week. If the league just wants to tell its own stories on its own platforms, okay, but if it covets more traditional media coverage, this can’t happen, especially in the finals. The WNBA later fined the organization $25,000, and several players $2,000 for the lack of availability.
* Craig Breslow, from Trumbull and Yale, had a fruitful career as a major league reliever. Now a well-regarded executive with the Cubs, he is emerging as a top candidate to run the Red Sox’s baseball operations. Maybe modern analytics practiced by an Ivy Leaguer who played the game is the right combination for 2024.
* The Windsor High Athletic Hall of Fame will be inducting athletes Connie Dumond, Leigh Ann Jaggon, Dawn Kelly Brinton, Shawn Miller, Willie Murray, Devin Over, Reggie Pope and Aaron Szotka, the 2009 state boys basketball champions and supporters Barbara Gough and Mike O’Brien on Nov. 10 at LaNotte Weddings and Banquets in East Windsor. Go to windsorhighschoolathletichalloffame.org for tickets and information.
* If you’ve been following his updates on the platform formerly known as Twitter, you know Dick Vitale is cancer free and hopes to return to ESPN’s broadcasts. Great, great news, baby.
* One of the great athletes of his time in Connecticut, Tom Rychlec, who came from Meriden and went on to play six seasons in the NFL and AFL (1957-63), died this week at 89 in his home town.
Last word
Like Jim Mora’s passion, like his honesty and, generally, I feel like he’s done a good job at UConn despite the current record.
But he ventured into territory on his radio show this week that he needs to avoid.
Here’s was Mora told host Mike Crispino: “If you want to attract players that can beat the teams on our schedule, you’re going to have to pay them, and you’re going to have to pay them NIL money, and you have to increase their cost of attendance, and you have to give them better housing and give them better opportunities to earn money, and unfortunately right now we don’t have much of that. And I’m fearful for this program if that doesn’t happen, because the teams we’re tasked with trying to beat have those things and they can go attract players with money. We have great facilities, we have a lot of people around here that care, but without the money. … I look at those schedules in the future and I realize if we don’t get some money pouring into this program, some dark days are ahead.”
UConn football announces four future games against Duke through 2030
Here’s my take: There is truth in all of this, but this a terrible look. Mora said many of the same things last year, when the program was having a taste of success. Yes, UConn is going to need power conference resources to compete with those teams, and the day is bound to come when the university will have a much harder time competing even in basketball without such resources. No one should be angry is angry the Huskies lost to NC State or Duke. It’s the losses to Florida International, in a game they were favored, and Utah State, in a game they led 17-0, that have sabotaged this season. UConn should have the resources to win games like that. And though no one knew exactly where NIL was headed two years ago, AD David Benedict, as was emphasized at the time, spent several days with Mora making certain he knew exactly what he was getting into at UConn.
When you’re predicting “dark days” for your own program, your recruiting is only going to become more difficult … unless, of course, you’re a coach looking for an exit ramp.
