The University of Maine men’s basketball team will begin its 2024-25 campaign with a season opener to remember.
On Nov. 4, the Black Bears will travel to Durham, North Carolina, to play Duke University — the school where Newport native Cooper Flagg will be playing and a preseason favorite to win the national title.
Neither program has released its official schedule for the 2024-25 season, yet rumors of the matchup between Flagg and his home state’s flagship college basketball team began proliferating Tuesday morning on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Third-year UMaine head coach Chris Markwood confirmed the news Wednesday afternoon, adding that the game was in the making for months.
“Duke reached out to us, as did other teams that [Cooper] was getting recruited by,” Markwood said. “Eventually he landed there, and we wanted the opportunity to take a swing at them. It’s pretty special.”
During scheduling negotiations, the Blue Devils made it clear that the game wouldn’t be played at a neutral site like the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland or the TD Garden in Boston, and would pay UMaine $90,000 to come to Durham.
“We would have loved to play at the Cross Arena, but those options were never on the table. Duke’s a really popular brand, and doesn’t really have to travel to get non-conference games,” Markwood said.
“I’m really excited for our guys. There’s nothing more challenging than playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium, against the preseason No. 1 team and potentially the top pick in next year’s draft. Everyone in Maine is looking forward to seeing what Cooper does on the next stage, just hopefully not on November 4.”
Flagg committed to attend Duke last fall.
This basketball season, Flagg was named Naismith High School Player of the Year and Gatorade National Player of the Year, leading Montverde Academy to a perfect 33-0 record and the Chipotle Nationals championship. At Duke, he headlines the top recruiting class in the nation, with five top 25 prospects.
