Talking about Arizona State freshman forward Marcus Bagley means talking about his basketball lineage. Inevitably, someone will bring up the connections. Conversations seem only to be able to go so far before they reach such a point.

Bagley has heard the talk throughout his basketball career. Ranked as the 30th player nationally– a five-star according to Rivals – and the sixth-best at his position in the 2020 recruiting class, he’s grown up under the shadow of his grandfather Joe Caldwell and older brother Marvin Bagley III. Those relationships have molded how many began their discussions about the 6-foot-8 forward during his basketball journey.

Both Caldwell and the eldest Bagley brother left their own mark on college basketball before Marcus arrived in Tempe. Caldwell’s three years as a Sun Devil left him with a resumé good enough to see his jersey hang in the rafters (he’d also go on to be a four-time NBA all-star). Meanwhile, the lone season Marvin spent in Durham, North Carolina, on the campus of Duke saw Marcus’ elder sibling become a consensus All-American and the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year.

Perhaps the only escape from the constant comparisons is in his Instagram handle. A few years back, Bagley was able to get in contact with a guy – whose name he desired to keep confidential – who was able to secure him a simple handle: @marcus. It’s the name he’s trying to make famous, and as his own career unfolds, it’s one he’s working to leave a mark with on the college basketball stage.

“That’s something I’ve been dealing with for a minute,” Bagley told reporters Thursday morning. “Coming up, everyone’s just knowing me as Marvin Bagley’s little brother or Joe Caldwell’s grandson. I’ve made it a point to focus on being the best me, and if that’s what they say, that’s what they say.

“I try not to listen to that. Right now, I’m just focused on getting better, bettering myself on and off the court, so people know my name.”

There’s a chip on his shoulder because of it. To be good enough to take that out of the normal rhetoric when talking about him, Bagley knows he’ll have to out-perform his recruiting ranking.

“If people are saying anybody’s better than you, I feel like you have to feel some type of way about it,” said Bagley of not being a consensus five-star regardless of recruiting service. “I’m not really focused on how many stars are next to my name or what ranking I have or that kind of thing. I’m really just focused on getting better as a person, as a player, and as a team every day.

“If we do what we’re supposed to do this year and win as many games as we want to, I feel like all the individual stuff is going to take care of itself.”

There's good reason for Bagley to believe in his ability to create a name for himself during his time at Arizona State. On a Sun Devil roster that will continue to push the pace – the Sun Devils have led the Pac-12 in scoring for three consecutive seasons – Bagley provides the Sun Devils with a bigger body who can create spacing on the offensive end with his shooting, an area head coach Bobby Hurley raved about when assessing the freshman’s game.

“This guy’s got a cannon,” Hurley said when talking about Bagley in October. “He’s really got a beautiful shot… If Bagley is the number 30 players [in the country], this can be a heck of a freshman crop because I’d love to see the other 28 guys.”

Any question directed at the Sun Devil head coach regarding Christopher, the supposed headliner of the recruiting class will no longer go answered without an addition or comment about Bagley, the supposed undercard. His impact in early practices has been felt enough that the two are grouped together now.

“Those two individuals are some of the best freshmen I’ve ever played with,” said senior guard Remy Martin during the Pac-12’s media webinar last week. “Their grit, their desire to win, their desire to play basketball is at an all-time high.”

Bagley’s capability to space the floor and bring bigger defenders onto the perimeter should bode well for Arizona State’s plethora of guards in their pursuit to drive to the basket. It’s something he takes pride in and an area he knows can make him a valuable commodity on any team, let alone a Pac-12 contender.

“When I was little coming up in Arizona playing AAU basketball; that’s all I was known for,” Bagley explained. “I couldn’t do anything else. I was just a shooter. I shoot a lot before and after practice, but this is not something I just started in college. I’ve been doing that since high school, middle school, I put up a lot of reps, and I take pride in that.

“Hopefully, when the lights come on, it will show.”

Not necessarily the boisterous talker that fellow five-star recruit Josh Christopher is, Bagley’s still not shy or running from expectations. When word got through to his Twitter account Monday that Christopher claimed they would be the best freshmen duo in the country, Bagley was quick to respond.

“He’s not lying,” quote-tweeted Bagley of Christopher’s claim.

Defensively, the Sun Devils crop of guards should allow ASU to play a suffocating brand of perimeter defense. On the interior, the loss of Romello White – who entered the NBA Draft before withdrawing and transferring to Ole Miss – and assumed guard-heavy lineups for Hurley, mean Bagley, Taeshon Cherry, and Kimani Lawrence could get minutes as small-ball forwards or super-small fives.

“Being a smaller team, it’s going to be a group effort,” said Bagley, who a week prior was compared by Remy Martin to former Sun Devil do-it-all contributor Zylan Cheatham. “All of us are going to have to crash the boards, so that’s definitely, something I’ve been working on, locking in on… If we do that and handle business defensively; we’ll be tough.”

A day after the NBA concluded its latest draft, way-too-early mock drafts for the 2021 season have already begun to pop up. While Christopher is penciled into a few, with his name coming up across various spots in the first round, Bagley’s name is either loosely attached to the second round or not there at all. His omission doesn’t worry him. Contributing to Arizona State matters more.

“I try not to look at the draft and look at the NBA right now,” explained Bagley, the night after some of his peers heard their name called. “Right now, I’m just trying to focus on everything I’m doing with my teammates. Like I’ve said multiple times, the time will come where I have to make a decision, and right now, I want to focus on winning with my teammates.

“Everything else will take care of itself.”

Growing up, Bagley often would spend time going to ASU games as a young kid. Watching Arizona State compete in what was then the Pac-10; he said he’d go home and play in his backyard, envisioning himself in maroon and gold competing against Arizona in the championship game.

Now, he’s less than a week away from his first action in a Sun Devil uniform.

“It’s probably going to be a surreal feeling,” said Bagley of the thought of putting on the ASU jersey before taking on No. 2 Baylor next Wednesday. “If you know me I’ve been an ASU fan since I can remember. I’ve dreamed about putting the jersey on and to be able to do it finally on the biggest stage… I’m going to be at a loss of words.”

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