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Marvin Bagley III is one step closer to becoming eligible for the 2017-18 college basketball season.
Evan Daniels of Scout.com reports that Bagley has filed the paperwork to the NCAA Clearinghouse, though it doesn’t mean a reclassification decision is set in stone. All this means is Bagley is asking the NCAA to review and evaluate his academic standing in the event he decides to reclass and move up from the 2018 class into 2017, but that doesn’t mean the NCAA will make it easy.
According to Adam Zagoria, there’s uncertainty as to whether or not Bagley will be able to get reclassified and deemed eligible to play this coming college season.
“How talented he (Bagley) is doesn’t matter at all,” the NCAA source said. “If he’s got the right credentials as far as academics and he can pass through the amateurism process in time to get on campus that’s all that’s going to matter. But he will have to jump through some hoops for it to happen at this time of year.”
It looks like a foregone conclusion Bagley will at least try to jump into the 2017 class, and UK does have two open scholarships for the time being. For now, Bagley has wrapped up visits with Duke and USC. He now plans to take official visits to Arizona and UCLA over the next two weeks.
There’s still no plans for him to visit the Kentucky Wildcats, though previous reports have suggested one of those five official visits allowed could be to Lexington. With four already set, that final one will probably come down to Kansas or UK.
I still think there’s very little chance of Bagley coming to UK for the 2017-18 season, but that drops to zero if he doesn’t even visit. UK is probably hoping he ultimately decides to stay in the 2018 class.