Cooper Goes Pro
To the surprise of almost no one, Cooper announced on Instagram yesterday that he's entering the NBA Draft.
The idea that Cooper would hop in the transfer portal to join his brother in Orono was always a long-shot. But a state can dream, right?
If you're subscribed to this newsletter, you already knew that Cooper is the consensus number 1 pick in this loaded draft, but where exactly might he land?
Enter this chart from Tankathon.
The red numbers are potential picks that are owed to another team in a trade (for example: Philly is protected 1-6, otherwise it goes to OKC). At the link below, you can hover over the red numbers and see who gets the pick, but the short version is that Houston gets the pick if Phoenix wins the lottery and San Antonio gets it if Atlanta wins. Simple!
We know where he can go, but the bigger question is where do we want him to go?
A lot of people around the state have opinions on this, but the 2 teams that it seems like no one wants him to go to Washington (because they're such a mess and have been for so long) or Philly (because no one deserves to win the lottery less than Philly).
The Draft Lottery is on May 12th. In the meantime, you can get a t-shirt to celebrate the time Cooper put you (or your kid) on a poster.
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Back in Maine, the Spring Sports season is underway, kind of.
It's a weird dynamic where some teams have started playing countable games and some are still playing exhibition games and I'm pretty sure all the schedules haven't even been entered into the MPA's site.
So I've got the schedules loaded and the Heal Points are updating as I work on cleaning up details like who isn't playing this year and who went co-op and all that.
Having said that, I think they're in pretty good shape.
Our Heal Points that load in under an hour and rankings for Spring Sports are available for paid subscribers.
Upgrading not only gets you access to extra features, but makes it possible for this site to, you know, continue to exist.
The Spring Power Rankings are also coming along.
There's the usual early season quirks with the added challenge of some teams not having complete schedules in the system yet. So, Old Town softball moves to #1 because they've only got 8 games on their schedule for some reason.
Anyway, it'll all work itself out. Eventually.
We lost one of the all-time coaching greats last week.
Some sad news to pass along. Maine Basketball Coaching legend IJ Pinkham has passed away. IJ lead Boothbay to 659 victories and the Class C State Championship back in 2001. Rest in peace Coach...
— Dave Eid (@DaveEidWGME) April 17, 2025
Michael Hoffer's move to the newsletter ecosystem is going really well. He's been churning out his usual stellar content, including this preview of the boys lacrosse season.
If you haven't subscribed to his site, you should definitely do that.
You can also watch him talk about the process of starting this new venture on the podcast.
With spring actually here, the season of road races is upon us.
The Boston Marathon was yesterday. Ryan Jara was your fastest Mainer at 2:22:48, good for 70th overall. Beach 2 Beacon registration was last week (it sold out again). And the Portland 10-Miler is this weekend. I'll be running that (slowly), so if you're there, say hi!
If you're interested in something a little shorter, I'm in charge of the Waldoboro Day 5K, a fun race the day before Father's Day.
So here's my shameless plug for the race. This year we're raising money and collecting goods for the Waldoboro Food Pantry.
It's fun!