With the 2017-2018 college basketball season looming, most universities are finishing up summer workouts and preparing for practices once the fall semester starts. However, Monday night, Marvin Bagley III completely changed the landscape for the upcoming season. Bagley, who is easily considered the best prospect in both the 2017/18 draft classes, reclassified and committed to Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils.
Bagley is a 6’11 power forward from Phoenix, Arizona, playing for Sierra Canyon High School, and the Nike Phamily on the EYBL circuit where he averaged 24.6 ppg, 10.1 rebounds and 2 blocks a game. A dominant athlete, Bagley showcases his skillset by taking bigger defenders off the bounce and powering through the lane. Most recently, Bagley had played in the highly competitive Drew League matching up against NBA talent such as DeMar DeRozan and exceeding expectations. Bagley could potentially be starting a trend with highly sought after prospects by reclassifying earlier to punch their ticket towards the NBA Draft.
Bagley’s commitment gives the Blue Devils’ their starting power forward to go along with #1 overall point guard, Trevon Duval, returning all ACC First Team senior shooting guard Grayson Allen, #7 overall prospect Gary Trent Jr, and Center and #4 overall prospect Wendell Carter. There’s no doubt that the Blue Devils will be the pre-season # 1 team this season.
Similar to last year, Duke will be extremely talented, and loaded with multiple lottery picks for the NBA Draft. It will be interesting to see if another early NCAA Tournament exit is in-store for Coach K and the Blue Devils.
Taylor Bergfeld is 48 MINUTES' go-to NCAA expert, and the host of Court Stormers. Taylor can be found on the interwebs @Tberg_2.
