NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Pros and cons of Marcus Bagley’s final 3 teams

Arizona State Sun Devils

Pros

Bobby Hurley has successfully built the Sun Devils into a perennial NCAA Tournament team without having a bona fide star, particularly offensively. Hurley has continued to have success on the recruiting trail and has a relatively young roster that is built towards maintaining success. Essentially, the program is ascending.

Bagley also fits in perfectly from a style-of-play standpoint. Hurley won two years ago with a roster full of shooters and then won last year with a bigger, more physical team. Bagley would’ve excelled in both molds, and Arizona State doesn’t have an elite wing scorer on their roster. Hurley’s fiery coaching style may be what he needs to play with more consistency on both ends of the floor.

Cons

For all the progression ASU has shown under Hurley, they haven’t advanced past the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament and haven’t met expectations in Pac-12 play, creating concerns that the program could get stagnant.

There’s also the fact that Arizona State doesn’t have the same pedigree of other schools on the West Coast and are often overshadowed by the likes of Arizona, Oregon, UCLA, Washington, and Gonzaga. They’re getting quality four-star recruits, but can Hurley get to the next level where he’s landing more program-changing recruits like Bagley has the potential to be?

There’s also Hurley’s track record of NBA Draft picks, or lack thereof. He hasn’t produced any. Not that he can’t (he took on rebuilding projects at Buffalo and Arizona State, and has only been a head coach for six years) but getting Bagley there would be new ground. Luguentz Dort’s regression during the season, going from a projected first-round pick to undrafted, could raise red flags in this regard.