America East Basketball

Ace Flagg, the twin brother of Duke freshman and projected future No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg, has committed to Maine.

The 6-foot-7 forward announced his commitment Wednesday on social media. He will join the program as part of the Class of 2025.

Ace Flagg has committed to the University of Maine! pic.twitter.com/qdgPnJjGeq

— Adam Robinson (@FunkFlashyRob) October 29, 2024

Ace Flagg is ranked No. 272 among national prospects by 247Sports composite rankings. He committed to Maine over other options including George Washington and West Virginia, according to 247Sports.

Flagg and his twin brother were both raised in Newport, Maine. Their mother, Kelly Flagg, played for the Maine women's basketball team that earned the program's only NCAA Tournament win in 1999.

Ace and Cooper Flagg began their high school careers playing for Nokomis Regional High in Newport, which is located about a 45-minute drive away from the University of Maine's college campus in Orono.

Both Ace and Cooper Flagg transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida for the previous high school season. Cooper Flagg announced in August 2023 that he would be reclassifying for 2024, setting him up for his 2024-25 commitment to Duke and potential 2025 NBA draft eligibility.

Ace Flagg then transferred to Greensboro Day School in North Carolina this summer ahead of his senior high school season.

At Maine, Flagg is set to play under third-year head coach Chris Markwood, who led the Black Bears to 15 wins last season to mark the team's best record since the 2010-11 campaign. Markwood has compiled a 28-34 record through two seasons in Orono.

Kellen Tynes credited Markwood's defensive coaching when he received his second straight award as America East's Defensive Player of the Year last spring. That could make Markwood's program a good fit for Flagg, whose sports performance coach recently told Larry Mahoney of the Bangor Daily News that the incoming freshman will be a "defensive anchor" in college.

Maine will need to wait until the 2025-26 season to add a Flagg brother to the roster, but the program has less than a week to prepare before facing one as an opponent. Cooper Flagg is set to make his regular-season college debut for Duke against visiting Maine on Monday.

The Will Brown era at Albany has ended. 

In a release from the university, Brown said he and the athletic department "agreed to mutually part ways" after 20 years. He was in the final year of a contract extension, according to the Associated Press. 

Brown compiled a 315-295 record and brought the program to five NCAA tournament appearances, including a run of three straight from 2013-15.  

The 49-year-old led the program to five America East championships and two conference regular-season titles. After a 14-18 campaign in 2019-20, the Great Danes finished 7-9—their third consecutive losing season. 

"Anyone who knows me knows this decision was extraordinarily difficult," Brown said, per the release. "But I leave the University at Albany with an enormous sense of pride in the positive impact that my staff, my family and, most important, the student-athletes I had the honor of coaching, have had on UAlbany basketball and the greater Albany community."

Brown initially joined the program as an assistant, but replaced Scott Beeten during the 2001-02 season, according to Pete Dougherty of the Times Union. At 30, he became the second-youngest active Division I coach, and he was tasked with helping transform Albany into a legitimate competitor. The school had just joined Division I in 1999, per the AP. 

Before his run at Albany, he had coached Sullivan County (New York) Community College for three seasons, where he led the group to a 90-10 record. 

The school, which currently lists associate head coach Jon Iati as the interim head coach, said it will begin a national search for Brown's replacement. 

Former 3-star recruit Josh Speidel scored his first career points for Vermont on Tuesday, making his first start since suffering a traumatic brain injury five years ago.

In a Senior Day matchup with Albany, Speidel got the start and converted the team's first shot of the game in a prearranged moment:

Vermont's Josh Speidel was a highly touted prospect before a car accident derailed his college career.

Tonight, on Senior Night, he scored his first basket on the first possession of the game 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ZyOBXj7dw5

— ESPN (@espn) March 4, 2020

Vermont went on to beat Albany 85-62.

Per ESPN's Myron Medcalf, Speidel was a standout at Columbus North High School in Indiana, averaging over 28 points per game during his senior season. But on Super Bowl Sunday in 2015, the Vermont commit suffered traumatic brain damage in a car crash that left him in a coma for five weeks.

Doctors told his parents their son might live the rest of his days in a vegetative state, need 24-hour care and never read above a fourth-grade level:

It's been nearly five years since Josh Speidel was involved in a traumatic car accident that would change his life.

Tonight he made his first start for @UVMmbb and scored the opening points for his team: https://t.co/dEu0lDCxEp pic.twitter.com/rJCctp6QXU

— NCAA (@NCAA) March 4, 2020

According to Medcalf, he will graduate with a 3.4 GPA this year.

After the game, the senior joked he considered missing his shot so he could grab a rebound:

POSTGAME: @JSpeidel24 talks to @MichaelELehr about his special night & what seeing his name on the boxscore meant to him. #ThisIsVermont pic.twitter.com/2s2mOt8Sy8

— UVM Athletics (@UVMathletics) March 4, 2020

It was an emotional night, according to UVM:

Should've put tissues under every seat in Patrick. #UVMProud https://t.co/VVm7bu8lFr

— University of Vermont (@uvmvermont) March 4, 2020

Vermont will start the America East Tournament as the top seed and face Maine in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Binghamton basketball player Calistus Anyichie died Sunday after drowning in an accident at Buttermilk Falls State Park in New York, the university announced Monday. 

He was 19. 

"There are no words ... There is no blueprint for how to deal with such a painful loss," Binghamton head coach Tommy Dempsey said in a statement. "We all loved Calistus so much. He was such a special young man. We are devastated."

"A talented young person has been tragically taken from us," Binghamton University president Harvey Stenger said in the release. "This is a heartbreaking loss for our community. We will do all that we can to be there for his family, for the team and everyone who knew Calistus."

Details surrounding Anyichie's death are still unclear. According to Matt Steecker of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, Anyichie's body was found on a 15-foot bank, and emergency crews pulled him from the ravine using a rope system after being dispatched around 5 p.m. Sunday.

Anyichie averaged 9.1 minutes per game and finished with 21 blocks in 32 contests as a freshman last season at Binghamton.

Virginia. Sharpie.

Say what?

The No. 1 seed Cavaliers only had a 5-2 lead over the No. 16 UMBC Retrievers in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but CBS Sports' Seth Davis was already saying the game was over. As the person in charge of the UMBC Athletics Twitter account that night, I fired back.

Frustrated by seven years of watching my now alma mater struggle in basketball, I began replying to his tweets with repeated score updates. I didn't know how long I would do it, but the game remained close.

While tweeting, all I could think about was the tough road UMBC took to get to this moment.

From 2009-10 through 2015-16, the Retrievers won only 41 games. Prior to this past season, they had won only one conference tournament in 31 years and made one NCAA tournament appearance.

Fueled by a buzzer-beating three-pointer against Vermont in the America East tournament championship game, the Retrievers earned their spot in this year's NCAA tournament. They drew Virginia, the nation's top-ranked team, as their first-round opponent.

The Retrievers came in as a No. 16 seed, and a No. 16 had never beaten a No. 1 before.

Fast-forward to our squad walking into the arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, where nobody thought we could make history. The only ones who did believe were the coaches and players. That's all that mattered.

When it was tied at the half, we had a glimmer of hope. That's when I started to have some real fun with the social media channels. UMBC was in the national spotlight, and you're damn right I was going to do what I could to make the most of it. 

Virginia leads UMBC 13-10 in a game that is still happening, in fact, there's 7:20 left in the 1st half. https://t.co/vQ4SeT6Roi

— UMBC Athletics (@UMBCAthletics) March 17, 2018

I started joking around with people and being even more snarky on Twitter. It must've caught some eyes, because we had roughly 5,400 followers at tipoff Friday night. By Monday morning, we had nearly 111,000, along with a place in college basketball history.

Zach Seidel directs all digital and social media and broadcasts for UMBC Athletics. Follow him on Twitter @SeidelUMBC.

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UMBC athletic director Tim Hall said the school plans to offer men's head basketball coach Ryan Odom a raise and a long-term extension after the Retrievers became the first men's No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 in NCAA tournament history.

"We need to do within our realm what we can," Hall told Jeff Goodman of ESPN on Sunday. "We obviously can't do what the Power Five schools can do, or anything near that. I think at some point Ryan wants to do it on a bigger stage. I'm just hoping it's down the road instead of now.

"We're going to put something on the table that will be really good for where we're at. We're going to do everything in our power to incentivize him to stay here."

Odom's current contract pays him a base salary of $230,000, which pales in comparison to the compensation of coaches at larger schools. It's unclear how much UMBC would be willing or able to pay a basketball coach due to its smaller standing.

Odom, 43, is 46-24 in his two seasons at UMBC. He previously served as the head coach at Lenoir–Rhyne and was an interim head coach at Charlotte. In addition to his head coaching experience, Odom has been an assistant at Charlotte, Virginia Tech, American, UNC Asheville, Furman and South Florida.

"I haven't even thought about it right now," Odom said after Sunday's loss. "I'm their coach. I'm here. I'm sure they'd like me to be here and I want to still be here."

There may be something said to striking while the iron is hot. Perhaps the most similar situation in recent memory is Andy Enfield, who parlayed Florida Gulf Coast's surprise run to the Sweet 16 in 2013 into the USC head coaching job.

Take heart, UMBC. Even the real Cinderella lost a shoe and saw her carriage revert to a pumpkin as time ran out on her fairy tale night.

But just as Cinderella went on to find her Prince Charming, so too will UMBC forever remain part of college basketball royalty.

The team with the hard-to-remember name made an unforgettable trip to the NCAA tournament. Not only did the University of Maryland-Baltimore County become the first men's No. 16 seed to win a game, but it also nearly doubled down on its lucky number and became the first one to reach the Sweet 16.

Alas, no. But Sunday's 50-43 loss was still a one-possession game until Kansas State's Xavier Sneed beat the shot clock by a fraction and pushed his team ahead by five points with 1:11 left.

Yeah, with just a little luck, the impossible dream that started with UMBC's knocking off No. 1 overall seed Virginia could have had a sequel.

The Cinderella story is over for the No. 16 UMBC Retrievers…#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/le7xRkAGDm

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 19, 2018

UMBC hung around and made K-State's Wildcats earn it despite getting only 12 points from Jairus Lyles, the senior whose 28-point night led the way against Virginia. Fighting cramps, Lyles soldiered through the final minutes against Virginia by licking salt from a cracker and drinking vinegar, but he couldn't find a magic elixir to fix his 4-of-15 shooting Sunday.

The Retrievers also kept hounding Kansas State despite not getting a single point from Joe Sherburne, who had 14 against Virginia but was 0-of-9 this time. There were other UMBC obstacles too, such as shooting a dreadful 29.8 percent from the field, missing half its free-throw attempts and giving up 13 steals to Kansas State's pickpockets.

All those negatives, and the Retrievers were still in it to the end. How?

If UMBC gets fouled four times on a play, maybe they’ll call it. Three times wasn’t enough.

— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) March 19, 2018

Maybe CBS' Bill Raftery said it best when discussing the height and weight of K.J. Maura, UMBC's point guard from Puerto Rico. Maura has acknowledged that no matter what the various programs and rosters say, he's only 5'7" "on a good day" and about 132 pounds.

Raftery said it's more like, "110 pounds, and the rest is all heart."

Maura buried two threes early in the second half, but, more impressively, he stayed in the game after he took a charge that would have sent most guys his size to the bench. He and his gigantic heart personified a team that played gutsy defense throughout and managed not to get starry-eyed after a day of adoration from the national media.

But coming up short the second time doesn't change UMBC's story. The Retrievers are still top dogs of this NCAA tourney, even if they were undone by K-State's Cats.

Kansas State coach Bruce Weber understood the magnitude of what UMBC accomplished against Virginia. After the Retrievers' victory, he addressed his players at their hotel. 

"I wanted to make sure they understood the task they had and how good they were," Weber said, per George Willis of the New York Post. "We've got to be ready for them."

UMBC's story gives hope not only to future No. 16 seeds but also to every smallish sports program. As ESPN's Darren Rovell pointed out, Kansas State's athletic budget is $73.4 million, and UMBC's is only $13 million.

Athletic Department Budgets

UMBC: $13 million

Kansas State: $73.4 million

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 19, 2018

UMBC's visit to hoops heaven lasted only about 48 hours before the clock struck midnight, but it delivered millions in publicity and awareness for a university whose previous best claim to celebrity fame was alum/actress Kathleen Turner.

As the Baltimore Sun reported, the school's bookstore received more than 3,000 orders for merchandise the day after the Virginia upset, which more than doubled sales from all of last year.

And with UMBC guaranteed a permanent place in March Madness lore, the school realized it better take full possession of its chapter of basketball history, which is certain to be revisited for decades to come.

Lawyers got busy, per Rovell, and filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark "16 over 1." Also protected were "Retrievers" and "Retriever Nation."

"With all the attention, it made sense for us to take care of it right away," said UMBC athletic director Tim Hall.

Even dog lovers celebrated the stunning rise of the Retrievers, with some telling ABC News that the breed was long overdue for some attention. Take note, Huskies and Bulldogs.

And speaking of pedigree, a salute also is in order for UMBC coach Ryan Odom, son of Dave Odom, who coached Tim Duncan at Wake Forest and also had a stellar run at South Carolina. Ryan's accomplishment is one more reason I hate giving out Coach of the Year awards before the NCAA tournament. No matter what happens on the rest of the road to the Final Four, Ryan Odom should get a nod for breaking the 135-game losing streak by No. 16 seeds. Nothing else that happens in this tournament will compare to it. Period.

So even though the Retrievers leave without championship rings, they will be remembered forever. Maybe not the way Texas Western and Loyola-Chicago are remembered—as small schools that won it all—but still as giant killers who did what was beginning to seem impossible.

For that, one of the shoe companies needs to send them some glass slippers.

    

Tom Weir covered 15 Final Fours as a columnist for USA Today.

The UMBC Retrievers are America's darlings after becoming the first 16th seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in the men's Division I NCAA basketball tournament, knocking off Virginia on Friday night.

And two-time NBA MVP and Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry decided to hook up the underdogs with a unique gift to celebrate their achievement:

Thanks to @StephenCurry30 for hooking @UMBC_MBB up with unreleased shoes and new swag for tonight’s game! #curry5 #RetrieverNation @UnderArmour @UMBCAthletics pic.twitter.com/M6rfPcl6Mz

— UMBC (@UMBC) March 18, 2018

https://twitter.com/_jlyles/status/975470892326191107

Curry knows a bit about shocking the world at the NCAA tournament. In 2008, he led 10th-seeded Davidson to the Elite Eight, beating Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before losing to Kansas by just two points.

Curry and UMBC have one more trait in common: Both are signed to Under Armour, per Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com, which enables UMBC to wear Curry's swag against Kansas State on Sunday evening.

UMBC senior guard Jairus Lyles led the Retrievers to a 74-54 blowout of Virginia on Friday night to become the first No. 16 seed in the men's NCAA tournament to defeat a No. 1 seed. The Cavaliers also happen to be his parents' alma mater.

Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com spoke with Carol Motley, Lyles' mother, who graduated from Virginia with the March Madness sensation's father, Lester Lyles, in 1985.

"It was unbelievable to see them whip up on my alma mater," Motley said. "I was part of Retriever Nation tonight."

She added: "I still can't believe it. We've done the amazing."

Lyles scored 28 points, 13 more than anybody else in the game, while also grabbing four rebounds and dishing out three assists in the upset.

The Retrievers return to action Sunday for a second-round clash with Kansas State.