Bagley on quest to be great —& crush Cuse
MARVIN Bagley III, on the other end of the phone Thursday as he prepared for Duke’s Midwest Region Sweet 16 showdown Friday with Syracuse, is asked what his team’s confidence level is on a scale of 1-10. And the best player on what may be the best team in the country, arguably the best player playing for the best coach in the country, gives an answer that will hardly juice Orange dreams.
“Ten,” Bagley says from Omaha, Neb. “I think we’ re very confident about how we can play and what we can do coming into these games.
“The first two games kinda brought us together even more than we were, and being able to be in the Sweet 16 is a great opportunity that we’re all excited about. We have a great confidence about what we can do.”
Bagley has been a March Monster. In five games this month, he is averaging 23.4 points on 66.2 percent shooting with 12.2 rebounds per game.
Bagley is making his case to NBA GMs as to why he should be the first overall pick in the draft with an on-court mentality that matches his wondrous gifts.
“Attack and be aggressive ... just do anything I can to help the team win ... rebound ... just get loose balls. ... Any of the things that some players aren’t willing to do, I’m willing to do,” Bagley said.
“I want to win this thing so bad that now is really time to lock in and get it done.”
The Blue Devils are a clear and present danger because senior Grayson Allen and their Fab Four freshmen are peaking at the right time. Especially Bagley, long and lean and so athletic at 6-foot-11.
“Since I came back from my [knee] injury, my mindset is to not take a step back and not fall back at all, don’t miss a beat,” Bagley said, “playing like it’s my last game.” I asked him what drives him. “I want to be the greatest to ever play the game of basketball,” he said. “I mean that in the most humble way possible — not to be cocky or anything, but I put a lot of work into this game, I sacrificed a lot every single day to get better at whatever it was that I needed to get better at. “It’s hard to accept failure when you put that much work in. It’s gonna be a lot of ups and downs throughout the way, but that’s one of my goals that I’m pushing for.” He picked Duke over USC and UCLA because of coach Mike Krzyzewski and the tradition there, and now he wants to help put a sixth championship banner on the wall. “I want to be a part of something special like that,” Bagley said. When a player wears the Duke jersey, he is the hunted. “I wouldn’t say it’s pressure for us,” Bagley said. “We all want the same thing, we all want to win this thing and we all want to come together and play every game like it’s our last. When we’re locked in like that, it’s kinda hard to think about anything else but winning and what everybody needs to do to help us win.” He is playing for the modern-day John Wooden. “When you see how much he puts into this game, and what he does to make sure that we’re ready to go and have the game plan, I can see why he’s had so much success,” Bagley said. I asked Bagley: “If I were an NBA general manager and I asked you, ‘Why should I draft Marvin Bagley III?’ What would you t ell me?” “I would say I’m a team guy,” he said. “I want to change the game in many areas. I can do a lot more than I’m showi ng here ri ght now, especially with this team we have, I’m just doing what I need to do to help us win this thing, man. I’m very capable of pushing the ball more, running the guard spot, I’m very comfortable doing that ... just being more of a facilitator. Just doing a little bit of everything. I did it a lot in high school, and I’m very capable of doing that.” March Monster.