Cooper's Debut

The first Mainer to ever play in the NBA very nearly had one of the best first buckets imaginable, but otherwise had a slow start before coming on in the second half and finishing with a double-double.

It was a solid first game.

Check out the highlights if you didn't stay up late enough to watch the game.

The Mavs started him at point guard in a massive lineup and the broadcast spent quite a lot of time discussing whether or not that was a good idea. I tend to think it wasn't, but it was one game against a Spurs team that got an otherworldly performance from Victor Wembanyama, even by his standards.

Mavericks-Spurs: 4 takeaways as Victor Wembanyama spoils Cooper Flagg’s debut

San Antonio’s star big man proves unstoppable, Dallas’ rookie slips in his opener and the Mavs may have point guard issues.

NBA.comShaun Powell

We all know how this is going to work. Cooper gets to a new level and the first game or two isn't up to his standards and then a week or so later you look up and he's put up 30 and a new group of people are convinced he's legit. His Basketball IQ is so high that it's inevitable.

Game two is tonight against the Wizards, so it might not even take a week.

On this week's podcast (presented by Vertical Raise), Varsity Maine editor Lee Horton joined me to overreact to Week 7's football games. Lee has a unique angle on the games around the state in that he has to oversee all of Varsity Maine's coverage, so while he's not going to games, he's watching streams and collecting scores and reading all the game stories and so on.

He's also in charge of their new text message service, which I highly recommend.

We talk about the genesis of the text messages and then do the usual tour around the state. Lee came loaded with takes and my hair was not cooperating.

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The NBA is back and boy is it ever

Where to start? First, let's go back to last year for a second.

Remember when Kristaps Porzingis turned into a pumpkin during the playoffs? Of course you do. Turns out he had a good reason. He's been diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, and it doesn't sound fun.

The Athletic: With Kristaps Porzingis’ mystery illness solved, Hawks are primed for NBA hunt

“We are an aspiring team, a young team that aspires to win a championship one day,” says Kristaps Porziņģis.

NBA.comFred Katz, The Athletic

You always need a little luck to win a title and the Celtics clearly didn't have it.

Yesterday, the league was rocked with a bombshell of a story.

NBA coach and player among those arrested in massive mafia-linked sports rigging and gambling probe | CNN

A massive mafia-linked gambling and sports rigging probe led to the arrests of Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. Follow for live updates.

CNNKara Scannell, Mark Morales, George Ramsay, Amy Woodyatt, Kyle Feldscher, Elise Hammond, Matt Meyer

Rumors about Rozier have been circling for a while, so that part of it wasn't a surprise, but Chauncey Billups being involved with the mafia in rigged poker games? That was a surprise.

It sounds like there's more names coming.

The upcoming Pablo Torre Finds Out episodes on this will be riveting. There's already been at least one.

Back in Maine, we had a fight in a soccer game.

A fight broke out in a Maine soccer game. It should’ve been a teaching moment.

By not publicly addressing what happened between the Fryeburg and Lake Region boys teams, the schools’ leaders miss an opportunity.

Centralmaine.comTravis Lazarczyk

From Travis Lazarczyk's column:

I reached out to the athletic directors of each school, John Gordon at Fryeburg Academy and Paul True at Lake Region, as well as head coaches of both teams, Lake Region’s Ryan Harlow and Bob Hodgman-Burns at Fryeburg. Surely at least one of them would go on the record to say it was something that shouldn’t happen and it is being addressed.

Nope. Closed ranks. One coach did call to say he could not comment. If we don’t talk about it, it didn’t happen.

It did happen, though, and it could be a teaching moment. Instead, by keeping things in house, it becomes something mythic. It becomes bigger than what it is, teenage boys being foolish and not in control of their emotions. That’s certainly not a new phenomenon. Plenty of good kids have made poor choices. Doing things you regret is part of growing up. So is facing the consequences.

Travis is right. There's nothing gained by pretending this didn't happen.

Andrew Hart has an exhaustive look at the Crabtree scenarios on the Maine High School Football Facebook page.

Game of the Week

The way I see it, there's three clear choices for Game of the Week (and 7 other games that look like they could be really good)

If you like rivalries, can I interest you in Cony/Gardiner?

Parker Morin and Cony have been unstoppable this year, rolling to a 7-0 record, and if not for a stumble against Leavitt, Gardiner would have joined them in the ranks of the unbeaten. Two bitter rivals playing on the final Friday night with nary a loss between them? Oh man. But 13-1 is good too.

Mike Mandell dug into the archives to find the five biggest Cony/Gardiner games in the previous 146(!!) meetings.

A look back at the 5 most-anticipated Cony-Gardiner football games

The rivalry game is big no matter the circumstances, but a few battles over the years drew plenty of hype.

Centralmaine.comMike Mandell

I think my favorite is the 1932 game.

The Thursday night before the game, firefighters were called to Cony High after reports of a blaze, only to find that the grounds crew had lit a fire in an attempt to dry the field.

Lighting the field on fire? In that economy?

Munzing Media will have the stream.

If you want to just look at the rankings, can I interest you in Bonny Eagle and Thornton Academy?

Varsity Maine has these team at 1 and 2 in their poll. They're 1 and 2 in the Power Rankings, only in the other direction, and have very much separated themselves from the field. They're 2nd (Bonny Eagle) and 4th (Thornton Academy) in scoring defense. They're each scoring over 37 a game. Michael Hoffer has this as his Game of the Week.

HHSS/cPort Game of the Week

Each Wednesday, we’ll zero in on one of the big upcoming matchups and do a deep dive on that contest. Some weeks, it takes a little consideration to determine the Game of the Week. Not this week. This week’s Hoffer’s High School Sports/c Port Credit Union Game of the

Hoffer's High School SportsMichael Hoffer

But here, we Trust the Model. It's like Trusting the Process if Embiid could stay healthy.

Can I interest you in Hermon and Leavitt?

The Stax Index has 6 games with a score over 79 and the highest, by a little bit, is Hermon @ Leavitt, because all roads this season lead to Class C.

Hermon is 7-0, but they've kind of been coasting on an easy (for C) schedule since their difficult start. By far their biggest test of the season will come from a Leavitt team that handed Gardiner their only loss and has only gotten better since their Week 2 loss to Greely.

There's all sorts of seeding implications here.

The Model says Leavitt by 10.6.

The rest of the Model's picks are after the jump.