Centers of Attention: Bagley's Debut Compared Against Premier Pivotmen

Regal recruit Marvin Bagley III bagged 25 points (school record in freshman debut) and 10 rebounds for Duke in the Blue Devils' season-opening 97-68 victory against Elon. But an early-season eye injury against Michigan State showed the ebb and flow of a freshman campaign is inevitable. By conclusion of campaign, will Bagley's first-season impact be more like Anthony Davis, the national player of the year four seasons ago when sparking Kentucky to an NCAA title or Karl-Anthony Towns in UK's 38-1 season in 2014-15 or Nerlens Noel in 2012-13 when the Wildcats wound up in the NIT or the most overrated recruit in history? Or will Arizona's DeAndre Ayton (collected 19 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in debut against Northern Arizona) or Texas' Mohamed Bamba (15-8-4 against Northwestern State) eventually emerge as premier pivotman from 2017-18 freshman class?

Actually, textbook centers are becoming a rare breed. Time will tell if Davis or Jahlil Okafor, who led Duke to NCAA crown two years ago, eventually deserve to be included among the premier pivotmen in college basketball history. Okafor, already traded to the Brooklyn Nets after flopping with the Philadelphia 76ers, will need to pick things up a notch or two by not focusing so much on underage rookie clubbing after "helping" the Sixers to an NBA all-time worst season start of 1-29 in 2015-16. By almost any measure, centers in the last 40 years don't seem to be anywhere close to duplicating feats luminaries Lew Alcindor, Wilt Chamberlain, Artis Gilmore, Bob Lanier, Jerry Lucas, Bill Russell and Bill Walton achieved in their initial varsity campaigns.

Similar to Navy's David Robinson in 1983-84, Connecticut's Andre Drummond was scoreless in his season debut five years ago against Columbia. In a forgettable debut similar to Missouri's Michael Porter Jr. (two points while missing majority of opener because of hip injury), Wake Forest's Tim Duncan was also scoreless in a season-opening loss to NCAA Division II Alaska-Anchorage in 1993-94 before rebounding with a 12-point, 12-rebound performance in his next outing against Hawaii.

Alcindor (77: 56 points/21 rebounds) and Chamberlain (83: 52 points/31 rebounds) each totaled more points and rebounds in their college game debut than Drummond, Duncan, Patrick Ewing, Nerlens Noel, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Robinson and Ralph Sampson amassed collectively. Following is a look at how many of the premier centers in history fared in their varsity debut against a major college and summary of their first season of NCAA Division I competition:

*Sophomore classification.
**Junior classification after attending junior college.