2023-24 Montverde team sees strong presence in March Madness including Cooper Flagg, Derik Queen
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Cooper Flagg's mom on her son's journey with the Duke Blue Devil's
Duke star Cooper Flagg has led the Blue Devils to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and his mom explains what the journey has been like.
Sports Seriously
Cooper Flagg, Derik Queen, Liam McNeeley and Asa Newell all led their teams to the men's NCAA Tournament in 2025, with Flagg and Queen still alive as the Sweet 16 gets underway.
The group of true freshmen were some of the best players of the 2024-25 college basketball season and are all projected first-round picks as one-and-done prospects. Fans might be wondering why those are four being grouped together. Well, they were all teammates at one point in time.
REQUIRED READING: Cooper Flagg's mom and Duke superfan offers tips for sports parents
And that was only a year ago.
Flagg, Queen, McNeeley and Newell — all five-star prospects and freshmen studs this season — played at Montverde Academy last season, a prep school in Montverde, Florida. As expected, they dominated their competition, finishing the 2023-24 season with a 33-0 record, winning all but three games by double-digits.
Here's a look back at the NCAA Tournament participants' time as teammates at Montverde, with Flagg and Queen hoping to lead Duke and Maryland, respectively, to the Elite Eight:
2023-24 Montverde roster, revisited
Flagg, Queen, McNeeley and Newell were all rated as five-star recruits, all ranked inside the top 20 of 247Sports' Composite rankings.
Fans know Flagg as the projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft and potential player of the year candidate at Duke, who's leading the Blue Devils against Arizona on Thursday in the Sweet 16. Queen, a 6-foot-10 forward, made a fadeaway game-winning shot at the buzzer in Maryland's second-round win over Colorado State.
McNeeley and UConn fell to 1-seed Florida in the second round and Newell and Georgia lost to Gonzaga in the first round.
Put those four on the same roster, and you have one of the best high school teams ever assembled.
Of course, Montverde is known for producing high-end NBA talent, as players like No. 1 picks Cade Cunningham and Ben Simmons, and Joel Embiid, R.J. Barrett, D'Angelo Russell and Scottie Barnes, to name a few, attended the prep school.
Flagg led the team averaging 16.5 points per game last season at Montverde, with Queen right behind at 16.4 points. McNeeley and Newell averaged 12.5 and 11.4 points per game, respectively, as well.
Baylor guard Robert Wright, who scored 19 points in the Bears' first-round win over Mississippi State, also played at Montverde last season, although he's not yet at the same level of NBA projection as his four former teammates yet. LSU guard Curtis Givens also played at Montverde during the 2023-24 season.
"They would have been the modern-day Fab Five," Arizona Compass Prep coach Pete Kaffey told Yahoo Sports earlier this season.
Those four players were all stars in their first college season and yet had to fight for shots last season for a high school program.
2023-24 Montverde roster college stats
Here are the college stats of each member of Montverde's big four from this season:
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
18 minutes ago
- USA Today
Former Thunder Olivier Sarr back in NBA on Exhibit 10 deal with Raptors
While the Oklahoma City Thunder mostly sat out the offseason, several former members of the NBA champion found a new home across the league. The latest is Olivier Sarr. He signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Toronto Raptors. Sarr spent three seasons on the Thunder from 2021-24. He sparingly played 46 games across those three seasons. He was signed to a standard deal, a two-way contract and a handful of 10-day deals during his time in OKC. The 26-year-old mostly played with the G League's OKC Blue. Sarr helped the Blue capture the 2024 G League championship. He suffered a torn Achilles in the Blue's Game 3 win over the Maine Celtics to capture the trophy. That April 2024 knocked him out for the entire 2024-25 season as he rehabbed his injury. Now, Sarr is back in the NBA. He hopes to have a strong enough training camp and preseason to be added to the Raptors' G League affiliate. From there, the seven-footer can spend the year with the Raptors 405 working toward a possible two-way deal. Sarr's younger brother Alex was the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NBA draft. The Washington Wizards hope the 20-year-old can build off his rookie season with a strong sophomore campaign that legitimizes his spot as a franchise cornerstone.
Hamilton Spectator
18 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Luka Doncic agrees to a contract extension through 2028 with the Lakers
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Luka Doncic has agreed to a three-year, US$165 million maximum contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers, bypassing a chance at free agency next summer to build a long-term future with his new team. The deal keeps Doncic with Los Angeles through 2028. The Slovenian superstar had a player option for the 2026-27 season under his previous contract. A person with knowledge of the deal confirmed the terms to The Associated Press on Saturday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Lakers don't publicly announce the details of contracts. 'Excited to keep working to bring championships to L.A. and make Laker Nation proud,' Doncic wrote on social media. 'Grateful to the Lakers, my teammates and all the fans who've shown so much love since day one. This is just the beginning.' The Lakers acquired Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks last February in a seismic trade for Anthony Davis . The five-time all-NBA selection and a five-time all-star averaged 28.2 points, 8.2 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game last season while teaming up with LeBron James for 50 victories and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Los Angeles lost to Minnesota in the first round, but Doncic enjoyed his first months in Hollywood enough to commit to the Lakers. He will return this fall alongside James, who will begin his unprecedented 23rd NBA season. Doncic's growing comfort with the Lakers was already obvious in his off-season activity. He played a significant role in Los Angeles' successful bids to sign Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart, persuading the two veterans to team up for the upcoming season. Doncic's extensive regimen of off-season conditioning work has also been well-documented after the Mavericks' questions about his physical commitment to the sport reportedly played a role in his shocking departure from Dallas. ___ AP NBA:
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
The double standard letting Shaq off easy for vulgar tirade
The insanely contradictory pursuit of social equality through double-standard inequality continued last week, with a vulgar, racist, misogynistic and semi-literate spew by Shaquille O'Neal, who nonetheless remains in demand to endorse any product — key chains for the homeless — as long as the checks clear. O'Neal's renewed target was, for some unimportant reason, Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, a black French national. In his latest 'The Big Podcast with Shaq,' warm and fuzzy funster O'Neal, said this: 'I f—ing hate Rudy Gobert. That motherf—er making $250 million. He don't deserve it, dawg. F–-k that. Advertisement 4 Rudy Gobert dunking during an NBA game. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect 'As the president of The Big Man Alliance, you making big money, play like a f––ing big man. That's it. Throw some elbows, knock some people out, don't be letting little white dudes from Denver dunk on you and talk s-–t to you.'
