In the first two competitive games of his one-year sojourn through the world of college basketball – although neither was particularly competitive -- Duke freshman Marvin Bagley III attempted 35 shots and scored 49 points, numbers that far surpass even the elite talents gathered around him.
Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils feature three other starters projected to be chosen in the first round of the 2018 NBA Draft by Sporting News’ Chris Stone: center Wendell Carter, point guard Trevon Duval and shooting guard Grayson Allen. And that doesn’t include wing Gary Trent, whom NBADraft.net has just outside the lottery.
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Before the Devils opened the season last Friday, Bagley had not played a single game in his career when he was not the singular focus of his team’s attack. So this is different, even if it seems the same.
“For me, coming in with this group of guys, it was a big adjustment for me,” Bagley told Sporting News. “Obviously everybody on this team can do things offensively, can score the ball. So, it was a thing for me to see where I could come in and bring my talent in, try to put it in a group like this.
“Coach has been telling me, and everybody’s been telling me, ‘Just be you.’ My first couple practices, I was kind of trying to fit into the system, trying to defer a little bit, not playing the basketball that I know how to play, that I’ve been playing the whole time to get me here. They tell me to continue to play, be myself, don’t think.”
There was a point in Duke’s first exhibition game against reigning Division II champ Northwest Missouri State that Krzyzewski had to visit with Bagley and make the point: Don’t play like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.
“After he told me that, I kind of relaxed a little bit,” Bagley said. “I took a deep breath, went out there and just played my game. That’s pretty much what I’m still continuing to work on.”
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The Blue Devils will confront a much greater challenge than even the D-II champs Tuesday evening at the United Center, when they face Sporting News’ No. 2 team—Michigan State. Bagley will be defended by the Spartans’ deep frontcourt that includes 6-11 freshman Jaren Jackson and 6-9 athlete Gavin Schilling. Bagley has been the primary weapon, with nine more shots than either Allen or Trent, but the Spartans will have to contend with a team with many options.
There will be nearly four-score NBA scouts in the building to watch as Bagley attempts to earn Duke a victory that would help the Blue Devils pursue another No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed – and tries to make a statement in his campaign to be the No. 1 overall pick in next June’s draft. There are some more candidates for that spot than in a typical year: Missouri’s Michael Porter, Arizona’s DeAndre Ayton, Texas’ Mohamed Bamba and Real Madrid’s Luka Doncic.
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Porter barely played in Missouri’s first two games because of injury. Ayton was terrific for Arizona in his first two games, averaging 19 points and 12.5 rebounds. Bamba has only played once, but produced a promising 15 points and 8 rebounds in just 23 minutes of a blowout victory. Doncic is on the other side of the world. Bagley perceives no competition with any of them.
“I’m in competition with myself, I would say,” Bagley said. “Every day, I’m trying to get better than I was the day before. They’re obviously great players, but I can’t sit here and focus on what they’re doing. I’ve got to continue to get better, continue to help my team, continue to just focus on our goal as Duke basketball players. If I do that, everything else will take care of itself.”
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Bagley accelerated his high school graduation in order to be part of this college basketball season. He turned 18 in March, but had been on track to graduate from high school next spring. He decided last May to take five classes during the summer to allow him to establish NCAA eligibility for 2017-18. Asked which of those was the toughest, he said, “All of them.”
He was still working on completing his schoolwork when he arrived at the Nike EYBL at the Peach Jam tournament in mid-July. In between classes, he found time for regular basketball workouts and eventually that one big tournament. Getting to Duke, he has discovered the challenges are far greater than what he faced before.
“It’s way different than high school,” Bagley said. “It’s a different type of game here: faster-paced, a lot of different terms that we have to remember and know. I enjoy it a lot. I’m having fun every single day. I’m enjoying the process.”
