One of college basketball’s highest-paid players last season, former Duke star Cooper Flagg had estimated NIL contracts that were staggering, according to longtime sports journalist and author Howard Bryant. During a recent sitdown with Bob Costas at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Howard asked his co-host how much much Flagg earned in NIL at Duke.

Costas was unsure, but then Howard provided an answer that resulted in an audible gasp from the audience — $28 million.

“He had a $13 million deal with New Balance and then $15 million with Fanatics,” Bryant said at the 51:09 mark of the conversation.

Here’s the thing — Howard’s reported total is likely Flagg’s NIL contracts in totality and not an annual payment. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski previously reported Flagg’s New Balance agreement was “significant.” These are often multiyear contracts between incoming rookies and sneaker companies.

Flagg’s massive deal with New Balance ahead of his first season in the NBA makes him one of the brand’s newest signature athletes. Flagg signed his multiyear partnership with Fanatics in January, but terms of the deal were not released.

Other exclusive Fanatics athletes include Victor Wembanyama, Paul Skenes, and CJ Stroud. Flagg’s first “rookie” card is part of the 2025 Bowman University Chrome set, which is put out by Fanatics.

Flagg’s previous estimated NIL valuation of around $5 million with the Blue Devils during his only season of college basketball was the leading number in the sport, so to think he was bringing in more than five times that number in a single season is almost unfathomable.

Regardless, the market value for the projected No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft is real.

Flagg earned national player of the year accolades last season after averaging a team-best 19.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, leading Duke to the NCAA Tournament’s final weekend.

Costas used Howard’s staggering figure to get on his soap box of sorts to make a broader point.

“That’s why, at least, it’s more profitable for a woman … a female college basketball player to stay in college and collect the NIL because, because for the time being, the top salary in the WNBA is like $75,000,” Costas said. “Now, it will go up a bit and if you’re Caitlin Clark it doesn’t matter and a few others because their deals carry over, but something that used to always bothered me when this convesation was going on before NIL, people would say, ‘Everybody is profiting off of this except for the athletes.’

“That implicitly says this whole thing is a sham and that the education itself has no value. So, if this student-athlete attends class, he could very well be sitting next to someone whose parents worked multiple jobs to put that boy or girl and their siblings through college. (And) that’s something that might be a present, at some universities worth on a four-year ride, $300.000. Not to mention what it means down the road for your earning power.”

Costas later said fans who are disparaging NIL numbers were “okay with the corruption” but not OK with the chaos these figures have caused in recruiting and player retention.

GRAND FORKS — New UND men’s hockey coach Dane Jackson completed his full-time staff by hiring Matt Smaby as the team’s associate head coach last week.

Smaby joins general manager Bryn Chyzyk and assistant coach Dillon Simpson on staff.

It’s an accomplished group with a mix of personalities. It covers all bases but one: None of them played goalie.

Jackson and Chyzyk played forward. Smaby and Simpson played defense.

UND is not alone in this spot, though.

Five National Collegiate Hockey Conference teams have a full-time goaltender on staff — Colorado College (head coach Kris Mayotte), Arizona State (head coach Greg Powers), Denver (assistant coach Ryan Massa), Minnesota Duluth (assistant coach Brandt Nicklin) and Omaha (associate coach Peter Aubry).

Four do not — UND, defending NCAA national champion Western Michigan, St. Cloud State and Miami, which currently has one assistant coaching spot open.

Western Michigan and St. Cloud State have a creative way to get a former goaltender in the coaches’ room.

Western Michigan’s director of hockey operations is former Bronco goaltender Will Massey. St. Cloud State’s director of player development is former volunteer goalie coach Matt Bertram.

UND could go that route.

UND posted an open position this week for a

director of player personnel and office operations.

It was previously held by former North Dakota Mr. Hockey winner Ryan LaDouceur, who has taken a new job on UND’s campus.

The Fighting Hawks could hire a goaltender for this spot.

If so, there will be limits on what the person can do.

Only full-time coaching staff members can provide direct coaching to student-athletes and participate in off-campus recruiting.

A non-coaching staff member — such as a director of player personnel — can be on the ice for practices, chart statistics, analyze video of opponents, participate in coaching staff meetings and develop game plans.

In short, guys like Massey and Bertram can tell the full-time staff what to tell the goaltenders.

UND’s job posting closes June 11.

Colten St. Clair lasted 18 games as the head coach of the Omaha Lancers in the United States Hockey League this season.

The Lancers fired St. Clair after going 6-10-2.

The rest of the season was vindication for St. Clair.

Omaha won just one time in its final 40 games after firing St. Clair. The Lancers went through four head coaches during the season.

St. Clair, meanwhile, was picked up by the Muskegon Lumberjacks as associate head coach.

The former UND alternate captain then led the Lumberjacks to the Clark Cup as United States Hockey League champions.

Muskegon beat Waterloo 4-3 in overtime in a decisive fifth game of the Clark Cup Final last Tuesday in Young Arena.

St. Clair has won two Clark Cups in the last four years as an associate head coach. He won with the Sioux City Musketeers in 2022.

On Monday, he was elevated to the head coaching position with Muskegon, which went 23-6-1 with St. Clair on staff.

Submitted photo

There were several UND and Grand Forks connections on Muskegon’s team.

Former UND standout Evan Trupp won his first Clark Cup on Muskegon’s staff. He is the team’s director of player development.

Muskegon’s captain was David Klee, who will be a freshman forward at UND in the fall. Klee tallied a goal and nine points during 14 playoff games.

Carter Sanderson, a 2027 UND commit, had one point in 13 playoff games for Muskegon.

Grand Forks native Bauer Berry, who is headed to St. Thomas this fall, was a regular on the blue line for Muskegon.

Submitted photo

UND incoming freshman forward Will Zellers was named USA Hockey’s Dave Tyler Junior Player of the Year.

He is the seventh UND winner in 31 years of the award. He’s the third in the last six seasons.

Other UND winners are Mac Swanson (2024), Jake Sanderson (2020), Tucker Poolman (2014), Chris Fournier (2001), Karl Goehring (1997) and Jason Blake (1994).

Blake started his career at Ferris State.

Zellers scored 44 goals in 52 regular-season games for the Green Bay Gamblers in the United States Hockey League.

The Minnesota Frost won their second Walter Cup by beating Ottawa 2-1 in overtime Monday night to clinch their best-of-five series in four games.

All four games went to overtime.

Former UND defender Samantha Hanson is the video coach for the Frost. Minnesota’s head coach is Ken Klee, whose son, David, will be a freshman forward at UND this fall.

Bismarck’s Britta Curl-Salemme is a forward for the Frost.

PWHL

• Dr. Westin Michaud, who played one season at UND after transferring from Colorado College, has been named head coach of the Minnesota Mallards in the North American Hockey League. The Mallards are based in Forest Lake, Minn.
• Former UND forward Brendan O’Donnell, who has been a top player for Düsseldorf in Germany’s first league, confirmed he is leaving the club after Düsseldorf’s relegation to the second division.
• Former UND forward Connor Ford has signed with Jukurit in Finland. He played last season in Slovakia.
• Two former UND players have landed spots for next season. Defenseman Tanner Komzak will play for Mount Royal, a USports team based in Calgary, according to his Instagram account. Defenseman Nate Benoit, who transferred to Quinnipiac last offseason, will go to Long Island University this fall, according to college hockey journalist Mike McMahon.
• Andrew O’Neill, a 2026 UND forward recruit, will play next season with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Western Hockey League. O’Neill spent the last two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program. He is from Fargo.
• Christian Wolanin scored an overtime winner for the Abbotsford Canucks on Thursday night in the Western Conference Final against the Texas Stars. Wolanin played at UND from 2015-18.
• Former UND defenseman Matt Kiersted and the Charlotte Checkers are in the Eastern Conference Final in the AHL playoffs. Former UND captain Riese Gaber also is on Charlotte, but suffered a season-ending injury in December. Charlotte plays Laval in the Eastern Conference Final.
• Former UND goalie Cam Johnson’s run of three-straight ECHL Kelly Cups ended this week with a loss to Trois-Rivières in the Eastern Conference Final. Former UND defenseman Chris Jandric plays for Trois-Rivières and will go for the Kelly Cup against Toledo.
• UND commit Cooper Williams was named the Saskatoon Blades’ Rookie of the Year and Forward of the Year.
• Michigan Tech has announced Bill Muckalt is replacing Joe Shawhan as head men’s hockey coach. Muckalt was the head coach at Lindenwood. He previously served as an assistant at Michigan Tech and Michigan.

I sort of suspected it might turn out like this. Still, it never hurts to double-check!

For this week’s Reacts post, we asked y’all which Mizzou program had the best overall year for the 2024-2025 academic calendar. And, like many probably expected, the choice was simple.

If Mizzou Football makes the CFP, maybe they get the nod. If Mizzou Hoops makes a run to the Sweet 16, maybe the bounce back is too difficult to ignore.

But Mizzou Gymnastics was the clear winner here. They finished higher than any other team in program history. They had a National Champion in Helen Hu, a wonderful story in her own right. They were a nearly perfect unit from top to bottom.

They’re Mizzou’s Most Valuable Program. Plain and simple.

When thinking about which UW sports teams have a long and storied history, your mind may first go to rowing, or football, or maybe baseball. However, unlisted on the Wikipedia page detailing the Washington Huskies and their athletic successes, is the Washington men’s gymnastics team.

In 1947, the first men’s college gymnastics team in Washington was founded at Washington State College. In 1950, coach Eric Hughes founded the UW men’s club gymnastics team. Hughes saw the team through its beginnings in the 1950s to the team’s first monumental successes in the late 1960s and 1970s. 

The Washington men’s gymnastics team (WMG) has undergone a plethora of associations over the years, from the Amateur Athletic Association (AAU), the Athletic Association of Western Universities to the Pac-8 and NCAA, which dominates collegiate sport today. 

In the 1950s, Hughes’ new men’s gymnastics team was designated as a club sport, which meant that they did not receive funding from the university. They competed primarily in Seattle with YMCA and club teams — until 1956, when the team was approved for a university budget and could then be called a varsity sport.

The newly varsity (and frosh/freshman) team competed with powerhouse West Coast and Canadian teams, but could not score on even footing with them, despite winning championships in the Pacific Northwest. At the 1962 AAWU Gymnastic Championships held at UW’s Edmundson Pavilion, USC tied for first with California (today UC Berkeley) with 106 total team points. UCLA followed with 76 points, and UW placed second to last with 49, out-under-scored only by Stanford, who scored zero team points due to sending only one gymnast to the championships.

This dynamic began to change in the mid-1960s. The team stepped up its game with the help of heavy hitter underclassmen from Washington and abroad, beginning to qualify for NCAA championships. One of these key team members was Yoshi Hayasaki, an international student from Japan.

Then-Sports Editor Greg Heberlein wrote in a February 1967 Daily article that Hayasaki was “one of the best high school gymnasts in Japan.” He had already broken the all-around point record in the state of Washington. Twice.

That 1967-68 season, Hayasaki became the first UW gymnast to win an all-around national title with his AAU win, the first since Charlie Denny’s 1962 flying rings national title.

Most pertinent of all, the WMG team won their first national team title at the AAU national championships in 1968. 

This success seemed to spark a fire under the team, because the very next season, they won nationals again, snagging back-to-back national team championships within the AAU. In ‘69, UW Finnish gymnast Mauno Nissinen snagged national all-around titles in both the NCAA and AAU, and despite tearing his Achilles tendon earlier in the season, Hayasaki managed to grab the national AAU parallel bars title that year as well. 

UW gymnasts continued to win titles in the 1970s, from Hayasaki’s numerous national all-around, parallel bar, and high bar wins, to Steve Wejmar’s 1977 vault national title, to a slew of regional titles from Tomi Ozora, Rich Gaylor, Bill Carpenter, and gymnasts like them.

Unfortunately, UW cut the team’s funding in the early 1980s, citing budget cuts. In some scenarios, this would have killed the team.

It did not.

Amongst conference changes, athlete injury, and a debilitating lack of funding, the WGM has persevered until today all thanks to a series of dedicated coaches, the Washington Men’s Gymnastics Foundation, and of course, the resilience and determination of the gymnasts themselves. Coaches Mark Russo and Jim Holt in particular were cited as being instrumental in saving the program in the form of a club sport once more.

Today, the WMG team competes in the Gymnastics Association of College Teams (GymACT). Just a couple of weeks ago, they placed fourth at nationals and WMG team co-captain Bradley Stroud tied for first on floor.

GymACT is an independent association of men’s collegiate gymnastics teams, many of whom lost funding from their schools. In the past decade, several NCAA men’s gymnastics teams have been cut for one reason or another. Just like how Washington’s men’s team was cut in the 1980s, many of these teams continue their pursuit of the sport and cultivate a space for collegiate men’s gymnastics through GymACT.

“Since the sport is not that popular, not super big, I feel like a lot of people, especially in the college gymnastics scene, know each other and also understand each other,” Stroud said. “Especially all the GymACT guys; we’re doing this because we love the sport and we don’t want to see it die and we want to keep pushing for it.”

Men’s collegiate gymnastics supports the growth of American elite gymnastics. Many of America’s top gymnasts today, like Fred Richard, Asher Hong, and Paul Juda, come from collegiate teams. There is an undeniable link between collegiate men’s gymnastics and America’s elite field.

Many of the UW top team members of the past, such as Hayasaki, Nissinen, Jeff Johnson, and Ignacio Morales, were also top elite athletes who made it to the Olympics or World Championships.

“If you want to preserve the sport as a whole, you need to start at college gymnastics,” Stroud said. “We will not be as good if we have less college teams, because the college teams are where our athletes we’re sending to the Olympics come from. Every single person from the Paris team was [on a collegiate team] … so I feel like that in itself shows how important it is for men’s gymnastics as a whole, especially, [to] keep the collegiate aspect alive and competitive.”

“Collegiate men’s gymnastics is certainly in a vulnerable spot,” WMG team co-captain Riley Lineman said in an email. “This past year the NCAA cut roster spots for men’s gymnastics down to 20 from 25, leaving many ex-NCAA athletes wondering what the next steps for them were … I honestly could not tell you what is in store for the NCAA in 10 years, but I certainly don’t see it doing anything to improve the state of men’s gymnastics.”

The future of NCAA men’s gymnastics may be bleak, but the future of GymACT seems bright. Just this year, a 16th team was added to the conference; the North Carolina Airmen. GymACT proves that any decline in collegiate men’s gymnastics is not for lack of effort by the athletes and coaches involved. 

When we look at the fall of the Washington team due to lack of funding, we can see history repeating itself with the NCAA today. However, if we follow that line of thinking, we can see that men’s gymnastics does not end with the NCAA or varsity status. The sport can and will continue if the gymnasts themselves wish it so.

This article is in large part thanks to former coach Eric Hughes and Lee Bjella, a Washington gymnast and judge who did great work in compiling Hughes’ records and other meet results, as well as athlete and coach interviews, and general commentary on the men’s gymnastics at UW over the decades. Hughes passed away March 14, 2016, and Bjella passed away within the same week Sunday, March 20. I thank them for their efforts in preserving the history of the Washington Men’s Gymnastics team.

Reach writer Sarah Dittle at archive@dailyuw.com X: @SarahDittle06 

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By Max Bultman, Scott Wheeler and Corey Pronman

By this point in the 2025 NHL Draft cycle, you know what the top of Corey Pronman’s list looks like, just as you know Scott Wheeler’s. If you’re a regular listener to The Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series or the Flo Hockey podcast “Called Up,” you’re also familiar with Max Bultman’s and Chris Peters’ takes on the 2025 draft class.

But what happens when those differing lists and perspectives are forced to collaborate and produce one shared list? Not just by taking the averages of each panelist’s ranking, but through debate, persuasion and compromise?

That was the question the most recent episode of TAHS Prospect Series set to answer. And the results lived up to the curiosity.

By the end of nearly an hour and a half debating 12 prospects, the group settled on four tiers of players ranked 1 through 12, and no one on the panel got exactly what they wanted.

Whether it was a favorite player slotted a little lower than hoped, or having to compromise high on a prospect with some risk, the collaborative nature of the process, meant to loosely mimic the process NHL teams go through to compare thoughts and produce a draft list, meant everyone had to give in somewhere.

In most cases, our panel was able to reach satisfactory conclusions and cut deals to keep everyone content, even if there were some gritted teeth involved. But in cases of true gridlock, each analyst was given one “super vote,” allowing them to break a 2-2 tie on a player they were particularly passionate about, in either direction.

You can listen to the whole episode to hear how it all went down, but here were some of the key debates and takeaways from the exercise.

Where to slot James Hagens?

This was our liveliest debate, which is fitting given Hagens has among the widest ranges of potential outcomes of the top group we debated. He came into the season as the favorite to be the first pick in the draft, but after a strong, though not necessarily spectacular, freshman season at Boston College — and perhaps some nitpicking of such a known player — there’s real debate over where he fits within the top of this class.

That was true in our debate, too.

Pronman noted Hagens’ outstanding track record over the years, including a “really, really good” draft year at Boston College. He called him arguably the most offensively skilled player in the class, headlined by his skating. But he also raised the issue of Hagens’ size, as a 5-foot-10 forward, and whether the relative lack of interior offense in his game this season could be a product of playing against bigger, stronger opponents — the kind he will continue to see as he progresses to the NHL.

Wheeler and Peters, meanwhile, were adamant in Hagens’ favor, with Wheeler advocating for Hagens at No. 3 on our list and threatening to use his Super Vote to keep him no lower than No. 4 on the collective list.

“I have, actually, fewer questions — despite the fact that he’s 5-foot-10, despite the fact that he didn’t score a ton — I’ve got fewer questions about projecting James Hagens than I do about protecting Anton Frondell or Porter Martone,” Wheeler said.

Peters took it a step further in rejecting Pronman’s argument, telling Pronman, “Corey, put the f—ing tape measure away, all right?”

“I think that we are gonna see a very different James Hagens this year,” Peters said. “And I do think he’ll be one of the best players in college hockey, and I feel like we’re gonna have a reset. And when we’re doing a redraft, he’s gonna be really high on a redraft. … In terms of potential, he is my number three with a bullet.”

But Hagens did not finish at No. 3. Bultman sided with Pronman on the debate between Hagens and Martone (the 6-foot-3 winger from the Brampton Steelheads), creating a 2-2 gridlock. Rather than use his tie-breaker, though, Wheeler opted to strike a compromise with Pronman that Hagens would sit behind Martone on the final list, but ahead of Frondell. Moncton (QMJHL) center Caleb Desnoyers was also mentioned at No. 3, but ultimately finished at No. 5.

Peters still wanted Hagens at No. 3, but with the other three panelists already agreeing to that order, he had no choice but to, in his words, “sit and stew in the corner.”

How the need for consensus affected other prospects

Prior compromises came into play on multiple occasions through our process.

The Martone-Hagens compromise, for example, resurfaced as an issue for Peters when discussing which tier to place Desnoyers into. He had Hagens ahead of Desnoyers, but Desnoyers ahead of Martone, making it tricky to place Desnoyers with Martone already ahead of Hagens on the consensus list.

And later on, Wheeler nominated Seattle (WHL) defenseman Radim Mrtka at number seven, but had to watch as the other analysts’ votes not only bumped Mrtka down, but into a separate tier, which ultimately left him outside the top 10.

But Wheeler did get passionate and use his veto vote to ensure that one of the draft’s most divisive players did not end up higher than where he was comfortable. Brandon (WHL) center Roger McQueen has some of the best athletic tools in the class as a highly skilled 6-foot-5 center who can skate, but has struggled with a back injury. When the group was deadlocked as to which tier McQueen should fit into, Wheeler stepped in “against taking a chance that we risk making a mistake on Roger McQueen.”

That put McQueen into the fourth tier with Mrtka, instead of into a third tier that ultimately included OHL center Jake O’Brien, Swedish winger Victor Eklund, OHL forward Brady Martin and OHL defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson.

The final collaborative list

After all the debating, the final top 12 — separated into four tiers — came out like this:

Tier 1

Matthew Schaefer
Michael Misa

Tier 2

Porter Martone
James Hagens
Caleb Desnoyers
Anton Frondell

Tier 3

Jake O’Brien
Victor Eklund
Brady Martin
Kashawn Aitcheson

Tier 4

Roger McQueen
Radim Mrtka

(Photo of James Hagens: Richard T Gagnon / Getty Images)