Did You Know Duke Men's Basketball Star Cooper Flagg Has a Twin Brother?

Yahoo

30-03-2025

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Arguably the biggest star of the NCAA men's March Madness tournament is Duke University's Cooper Flagg. Flagg, 18, is a forward for the Blue Devils. The 6'9' freshman is from Newport, Maine, and is likely to be the first pick in the 2025 NBA draft.
'It's always been about basketball for us,' Cooper said of him and his brothers, Hunter and Ace. 'Mom and dad have always been there for us, whatever we want to do.' As his profile continues to rise, get to know Cooper Flagg's family:
Kelly, who grew up in Newport, Maine, went to Nokomis high school, where she was a standout basketball player. 'She can score, rebound, handle the ball and play good defense,' former Nokomis coach Charlie Wing said in 1994, per Bangor Daily News. 'She's a very well-rounded player who does everything well. She also has a tremendous desire to succeed and is very coachable. I wish I had a dozen Kelly Bowmans.'
She went on to play college basketball; at 5'10', she was a three-time conference champion at the University of Maine. As a senior in 1999, she was a team captain.
After graduating, Kelly worked as a high school basketball coach, coaching the Nokomis varsity girls team, and her three sons all grew up loving the sport. 'I have pictures of the kids with teething rings that were basketball-shaped,' Kelly said. 'It's just what my family has always done. … It's just in our blood, and what we do.'
She added, 'All of them found their own path to loving the game… But I will say about Cooper, I think he definitely came out of the womb ready to go. I've got pictures of him on one of those Little Tikes hoops dunking when he was maybe 18 months.'
Kelly is superstitious; watching her son's games, she says, 'I have to sit in the same seat. Usually, I like to sit by the same person or in the same seating order.'
Ralph, like his wife, went to Nokomis Regional High. He went on to play college basketball at Maine Technical College (now Eastern Maine Community College). After graduating, he was playing in a men's league at the community center, and met Kelly, bonding over the love of basketball.
Per the Bangor Daily News, 'You don't have to spend too much time combing through the BDN archives to see clips from [Cooper] Flagg's parents' high school and college playing days, and there are some pretty interesting parallels to be found. Their stat lines and approaches to the game from decades ago are reminiscent of what we're seeing from Cooper Flagg today.' Ralph is also where Cooper's height comes from: Ralph is 6'7'.
Like Kelly, Ralph is really proud of his home state of Maine. 'Just because we don't produce the big D1 athletes as much as those other states do, people don't think basketball is as big [here],' Ralph told The Athletic. 'But it really is.'
The Flaggs met Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the 2024 ESPYs:
Hunter, born in 2004, was born premature, weighing just 1 pound, 10 ounces. He had a twin brother, Ryder, who passed away two days after their birth. As Hunter remained in the neonatal intensive care unit, his parents stayed in the nearby Ronald McDonald House in Portland.
'I never left Portland,' Kelly later recalled. 'After Hunter was born, I said, 'I'm not leaving without him,' and so to have the house and to be able to stay close by... There were times that were sort of perilous during his journey, and I get a call at any time of day and night that I needed to get over there to the hospital. Being three minutes away instead of an hour and a half was huge.'
Years later, Cooper and Ace learned about what happened. 'It's just been something that has always meant a lot in our family. We've talked about it very generally for my whole life. It's kind of just been something terrible that my parents went through, and Hunter,' he said.
Like his younger brothers and parents, Hunter played basketball at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport. When he was a senior and his brothers were freshmen, they won the Maine Class B championship game.
Hunter is currently a junior at the University of Maine, where he's studying sports management.
Cooper's twin brother, Ace, is still a high school senior (Cooper reclassified from the class of 2025 to the class of 2024).
This past fall, Ace committed to play basketball at the University of Maine. 'A large factor of my decision was a love for the state of Maine as a whole. Being able to play and represent the state I love is extremely special to me,' Ace told the Bangor Daily News. 'I am excited to be able to play for Coach Markwood, with the culture he's created at Maine. It is an amazing opportunity.'
He's a little shorter than his brother, standing at 6'8''; they are not identical twins. 'We have to continue to consider and understand that as advanced as the Flagg boys are in their basketball development, they are still only 18 years old and they have a long way to go, and they're going to continue to develop over the next several years,' Matt MacKenzie, Cooper and Ace's player development coach told the BDN, adding, 'Both Flagg boys have done an incredibly good job drowning out the noise and just focusing on improving their own game.'
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