• Slug: Sports-Marvin Bagley Return, 1,618 words
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By Brendan Mau
Cronkite News

TEMPE – In 2020, coach Bobby Hurley pieced together an impressive recruiting class for Arizona State men’s basketball, highlighted by Josh Christopher and Marcus Bagley, both among the top 30 recruits in the country. The class finished top-10 in the country, which earned Hurley his best ranking in eight seasons with the Sun Devils, according to 247Sports.

Now, a first-round pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Christopher is in his second NBA season with the Houston Rockets. Meanwhile, Bagley is entering his third season with ASU, having only played 15 games over his first two years due to injury.

No matter. Along with teammate DJ Horne, Bagley was named to this season’s Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Second Team and approaches ASU’s upcoming 2022-23 season with a clean slate. The Sun Devils open the regular season Monday at home against Tarleton State.

“Essentially it’s a blank start for me, that’s how I want to approach it,” Bagley said. “Just come every day, put the work in, put the time in and whatever stems from that I’ll accept because I know I put the time in.”

One of the team’s longest-tenured players, Bagley will assume a leadership role by default, despite little playing time. Still he has supreme confidence in his teammates.

“We know it’s a big year, not only for this team but for the university (as well),” Bagley said. “It’s going through a lot, as an athletic university. So we’re excited to get out there and try to turn some things around.”

Over this offseason, Bagley worked on better decision-making with the ball and increasing his effort on both ends of the court. He also played the hat of recruiter by helping bring in his third-grade teammate and projected starting point guard, Frankie Collins, from Michigan.

“When I heard he was coming on a visit, I was like, ‘Yeah, I got to lock this in,’ and then the day after the visit, he committed,” Bagley said. “I couldn’t be happier. So we’re glad to have him. He’s a great guy off the court and a great guy on the court. And he’s definitely going to be a leader for us at the point guard position.”

Collins added: “We just talked, and he just really just broke it down to me like how hungry he is this year and how he really wants this year to be the year because he’s kind of been robbed his last few years with injuries.“

Collins also highlighted the ease in finding Bagley wherever he is on the floor, thanks in part to establishing an early chemistry on offense.

“If (Bagley) goes through a healthy year and just plays the way we know he can play, you might not even be able to see him here next year,” Collins said. “He will be an NBA player. Because a healthy Marcus is an NBA player.”

Bagley’s brother, Marvin, signed a three-year, $37.5 million contract over the summer with the Detroit Pistons after a resurgence last season. Marvin had a dominant career at Hurley’s alma mater, Duke, and he ended up being the second overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

“I talk to him pretty much every day,” Bagley said of his brother. “He just is big in telling me what to expect. If he sees something I’m not doing right on the court, he’ll call me, let me know and stuff like that, vice versa. So it’s just good to have that guy in the NBA that’s doing it at the highest level giving you advice.”

Bagley’s personal goal for the season is simple and will only help the team succeed, if his body cooperates.

“​​I just want to be consistently available,” he said. “I want to be an everyday guy. Every practice, every game, I want to be available.”

After doing his best to stay healthy last year, “the ball didn’t bounce (his) way,” Bagley admits, and now he wants to look ahead to the future and put the past behind him.

“If I stay in the past, it doesn’t serve me anymore,” he said. “So I just think of everything I could do now to stay on the court and stay healthy. And if I do that, if I do everything I possibly can, I’ll live with the results.”

The Sun Devils won seven of their last eight regular-season games last season and look to build on those strengths early to avoid a second straight poor start.

In the team’s quest to prove the conference preseason rankings wrong, Bagley, his teammates and Hurley enter Monday’s opener with a chip on their shoulder.

“Everybody’s just really hungry, we want to win,” Bagley said. “We all have the collective idea that if we do what we got to do as a team, all the individual stuff will take care of itself. So we’re just excited, we really can’t wait to get out there.”

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