2023-24 Montverde team sees strong presence in March Madness including Cooper Flagg, Derik Queen
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.
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:
- Cooper Flagg (Duke): 18.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists per game on 48.8% shooting
- Derik Queen (Maryland): 16.2 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists per game on 52.9% shooting
- Liam McNeeley (UConn): 14.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists per game on 38.1% shooting
- Asa Newell (Georgia): 15.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game on 54.3% shooting