The issue of Bagley reclassifying to 2017 was raised as a possibility by Jerry Meyer of 24/7 Sports in a report Friday, and confirmed by Gary Parrish of CBS Sports.
Parrish reported that Bagley, a 6-10 forward playing high school basketball at Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth, Calif., has not made a final decision and that it’s not even clear if he is in position to enter college this fall.
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Scout.com analyst Brian Snow told Sporting News that Bagley would be considered the No. 1 player in this year’s freshman class if he were to play the 2017-18 season at either Duke, Southern California, Kentucky or Arizona, the schools he discussed with reporters Thursday. Thus his entry into college would have a significant impact on the pursuit of the 2018 championship.
Bagley is a remarkable scoring force who combines Michael Beasley’s varied offensive game and straight-forward style with the athleticism of Bam Adebayo. Evan Daniels, Snow’s colleague at Scout, told SN earlier in the week that he is certain Bagley will become an NBA All-Star.
However, it is exceedingly rare for an athlete to pull off a reclassification so near to the start of college classes. When point guard Derryck Thornton accelerated his graduation to attend Duke in the 2015-16 season — an unusually late change — he decided in April, with plenty of time to get through the NCAA’s initial eligibility process.
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Duke, which Bagley will visit at the conclusion of his Peach Jam experience, begins new-student orientation in 39 days and fall classes a week after that. USC’s classes start even earlier.
“I’m just enjoying the process, taking it one day at a time,” Bagley said Thursday.
If he wants to be a freshman this fall, he’ll need to get moving.
