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Ace Flagg makes a pass to his twin brother Cooper Flagg at the Cooper and Ace Flagg Basketball ProCamp on Saturday in Orono. Ace is preparing for his first season at the University of Maine. (Anna Chadwick\/Staff Photographer) <\/p>\n
ORONO \u2014 Ace Flagg is home.<\/p>\n
After a year at Greensboro Day School in North Carolina, and two years before that at Montverde Academy in Florida, Flagg\u2019s gym at the University of Maine is just a short half hour drive from his hometown of Newport. Flagg draws strength from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our home, where we come from. Maine\u2019s a very special place. It\u2019s very tight knit. There\u2019s not many places like it, where you can move across the country and still have that support behind you,\u201d Ace said Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Ace was all over the University of Maine\u2019s New Balance Field House on Saturday, interacting with the hundreds of children taking part in the basketball camp that bears the names of Ace and his twin brother, Cooper, who you\u2019ll recall, was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in June, after his one season at Duke.<\/a><\/p>\n Down a short hallway from the field house is the entrance to the Pit, UMaine\u2019s Memorial Gym, where in a few months Ace will wear the Maine across his chest as a member of the Black Bears men\u2019s basketball team. His parents, Ralph and Kelly Flagg, herself an alumni of Maine\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team, are thrilled about his college decision.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s exciting for us to spend more time back in Maine and get to see our family and friends more often,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n Throughout her son\u2019s recruiting process, Kelly didn\u2019t hum a few bars of the \u201cMaine Stein Song\u201d whenever he entered the room. Ralph didn\u2019t leave Bananas the Bear bobbleheads around the house. They tried to let Ace make the decision \u2014 the biggest decision in the lives of many 18-year old, whether athletics is in the equation or not \u2014 organically.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far recruiting went for both Ace and Cooper and their processes, I tried to let them figure it out and make the choice that was right for them and the best fit,\u201d Kelly said, as Ace and Cooper visited with campers across the field house, blending in as much as guys 6-foot-7 can blend in. \u201cI obviously felt that this was going to be a good fit for Ace. He came to that conclusion on his own. He figured it out, and we were thrilled when he made that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Ace Flagg blocks a shot of a camp attendee during the Cooper and Ace Flagg Basketball ProCamp on Saturday in Orono. (Anna Chadwick\/Staff Photographer) <\/p>\n<\/p>\n