Tag: EYBL

Duke basketball offers four-star 2026 forward Miikka Muurinen

Duke basketball extended an offer to fast-rising 2026 prospect Miikka Muurinen.

2026 feels like the distant future, but considering that it’ll be 2025 on the calendar once Duke basketball reaches the ACC portion of its schedule this season, the future will be here before we know it.

That said, Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils will likely focus considerable recruiting resources on the Class of 2026, and there are some terrific prospects for them to choose from. One of them, power forward Miikka Muurinen, received an offer from Duke over the weekend, according to 247Sports’ Travis Branham.

Muurinen, who plays for Compass Prep in Arizona, is originally from Finland. He stands 6-foot-10 and currently ranks as 247Sports’ 44th-ranked player in the Class of 2026, but many recruiting insiders expect him to receive a boost on all recruiting services. Branham named Muurinen the ‘biggest riser’ from Peach Jam, where he averaged 18 points and four rebounds per game for Bradley Beal’s Elite 16U squad.

He shot 62 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range (14-for-28 over six games) as he helped his team win an EYBL championship.

“Muurinen was oozing with talent and upside and looked every bit like a top-10 recruit in the 2026 class,” Branham wrote.

With his stock rising, expect Muurinen’s recruitment to reach astronomical heights in the coming months. Kentucky has also offered him thanks to his Peach Jam performance. His mother played college basketball for the University of North Carolina, so it shouldn’t come as a shock if UNC is a significant factor in this recruitment in the future.

Highlights: 5-star sophomore Cooper Flagg goes off for 52 points in EYBL debut

After Cooper Flagg put up 52 points, Sam Vecenie tweeted that the 5-star sophomore will be “bored by high school basketball” by the time he’s a senior.

Cooper Flagg has still yet to finish his sophomore year of high school, but he’s looking more and more like a star-in-the-making each time he steps on the basketball court.

In his EYBL debut last week, Flagg went off for a remarkable 52 points and 12 rebounds. In the highlight reel posted to YouTube by SLAM, Flagg showed a variety of skills on both sides of the ball: He showed some polish in his post moves; he stroked 3s, including one in which he created space and shot with a hand in his face; he was a ball handler at times, both at the top of the key and on the fast break, showing an ability to read the court well. On defense, he had multiple blocks in the paint.

Flagg, listed at 6-foot-8 and 195 pounds, attends Montverde Academy. In about 20 minutes per game as a sophomore, he averaged 9.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.6 steals and 2.2 blocks, according to MaxPreps. The Eagles consistently have stacked rosters, and Flagg’s role should continue to grow as he gets older and more experienced.

His play has earned high praise from prospect analysts. Sam Vecenie of The Athletic tweeted that Flagg is “one of the more complete prospects” Vecenie has seen for a player of Flagg’s age, and that the sophomore will “be bored by high school basketball” before he graduates.

Based on just this EYBL game alone, it looks like that could be the case. Very few athletes at the high school level will be able to challenge him.

247Sports reports that eight schools have offered the 2025 star, including Duke, Iowa, Michigan and UCLA.

Read more at USA TODAY, where reporter Bryan Kalbrosky wrote a more in-depth piece about Flagg in July with some quotes from recruiting experts — including a line in that Flagg might be the best player in college basketball.

WATCH: Michigan State basketball commit Jeremy Fears with a monster dunk

2023 MSU PG commit Jeremy Fears Jr. caught a body on this dunk:

The AAU basketball circuit has begun and the nation’s best high school players are competing against one another. Fears is competing in Nike’s EYBL, or Elite Youth Basketball League, for the Indy Heat – Gym Rats.

During session one of the EYBL, Fears made his fair share of highlights, but he caught the nation’s attention when he drove the lane and absolutely posterized a defender on his way to a monster dunk.

Watch Jeremy Fears Jr.’s insane dunk via Twitter here:

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On the AAU front, James hopes that his …

On the AAU front, James hopes that his advice from his years of experience as a player and parent provides parents and young athletes with a better grasp of the multiple developmental options out there and the many consequences of trusting the wrong people. “The best programs are the EYBL. There’s no question about it,” James told Yahoo Sports. “They play one or two games a day. It’s the off-brand tournaments [that are the problem]. It’s those tournaments in those small cities. There’s no Whole Foods in those small cities. Those kids are eating McDonald’s, bro. They’re eating bad, and they’re playing five, six games a day. Come on, man. That’s what it is.”