Jared CohenYou can go up and down the list of accomplishments and accolades Marvin Bagley III has been able to experience and sometimes it makes you forget that he is just going into his sophomore year at Corona del Sol.
Offers have come from the elite basketball programs this summer in the form of Kentucky, Duke and others. Bagley visited Duke last month while on an east coast trip with his family as well. What separates Bagley from most who have been in his position in the past, at no point is he losing sight of how special these experiences are.
“Overall it has been a great experience for me,” Bagley told Sports360AZ. “I just thank God every day for putting me in this position. To see a lot of stuff that a lot of kids wouldn’t be able to see so I am just very appreciative, I’m thankful, and I’ve just got to keep working now.”
“Duke was a great school to visit,” he mentioned. “I got to see the facilities and the weight room and stuff like that. It was a great thing to see because like I said, a lot of kids might not be able to see that. So I am just happy to have a chance to be put in this position.”
With all this being said, the work however does not stop. Bagley has one year of high school under his belt and he working toward applying what he learned and being that much better going into year two.
“Last year, I was just coming in so I didn’t know what to expect,” he explained. “I was trying to sit back and learn from the seniors that were on the team. Now a lot of seniors are gone so I think I need to step up more, be a leader on the floor like a coach on the floor, calling out plays, picking up teammates when their down and just being able to communicate on the floor when stuff’s not going right, or when it is going right.”
His freshman year, while incredibly successful, was also a major learning experience for him.
“I learned that every game is a good game,” Bagley stated. “They are going to come after you strong so you can never come out relaxed. You have to come out with great energy and you’ve got to be well prepared.”
Bagley is competing this month with his Corona teammates and then well be back out on the club circuit traveling all over the country, including South Carolina in July. Before he knows it, the school year will begin and Corona will be in pursuit of an unprecedented fifth consecutive state title at the highest level of play.
“Just going to keep working on my game,” Bagley said. “Fixing the little things I need to work on, getting them to the point to where it is second nature. And just being able to go out and play with energy.”
Bagley’s offers currently consist of Arizona State, Arizona, Creighton, DePaul, Duke, Grand Canyon, Kentucky, Memphis, New Mexico, North Carolina A&T, Northern Arizona, Oregon, San Francisco, UCLA, UCONN and Washington State. ESPN recently named him the number one in the country for the 2018 class.
