Marvin Bagley III will appeal CIF's ineligible decision

Marvin Bagley Jr., has hired a lawyer to fight for his son's chance to still have a sophomore basketball season in California.

Marvin Bagley III, who led Tempe Corona del Sol to a fourth consecutive Division I championship as a 6-foot-11 freshman last season, will have his appeal hearing Tuesday after the CIF's Southern Section ruled him ineligible to play earlier in the week at Chatsworth (Calif.) Sierra Canyon, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Times reported that Bagley is being represented by Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, the same law firm that won a 2010 appeal for Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei football player Todd Hunt after he transferred from Connecticut.

CIF declares Marvin Bagley III ineligible to play at Sierra Canyon

The Southern Section ruled Bagley ineligible because it was athletically motivated.

Marvin Jr., did not return a text message asking for comment on the appeal.

Bagley and his lawyer will have to be able to show that the move to Sierra Canyon wasn't athletically motivated for the ruling to be overturned.

"We are confident that the CIF will look at the new evidence we are presenting and change its ruling on Marvin’s eligibility," attorney Kevin Boyle said in an email.

Report: Marvin Bagley III enrolls at California school

Bagley told azcentral sports in November, after he left start-up national prep academy Phoenix Hillcrest Prep Academy as an associate coach and pulled both of his sons, Marvin III and 6-5 eighth-grader Marcus, from the program, that he felt misled by what Hillcrest was advertising and wanted to get away from the "negativity."

The NCAA had just come through to check on the academic side at Starshine Academy, where the players are housed. That is typical procedure when there is a high-profile player at a new prep academy. Because of Bagley and 7-1 junior DeAndre Ayton, Hillcrest had a major Nike sponsorship that covered traveling expenses for tournaments.

The elder Bagley learned that Hillcrest wasn't being ranked by USA TODAY in national polls because it didn't have at least 20 percent of its games played against high schools and it wasn't part of a state association, even as an affiliate member, like other prep academies, such as Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep.

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"Ineligible to be ranked by USA TODAY, that's big in my opinion," Bagley Jr. said at the time. "When ESPN refused to play your team, especially when ESPN has Marvin ranked No. 1 (in 2018 class) and DeAndre No. 1 (in 2017 class), and they won't play them on TV, that's really bad."

Bagley also expressed disappointment that Hillcrest wasn't going to get to play in the Dick's Sporting Goods national tournament in April with Findlay, Oak Hill Academy and other top prep academies.

“We’re trying to play for a national championship,” Bagley Jr., said in November. “We feel we don’t have that opportunity.

“I spoke with a head coaches from other top schools, and they said they were getting a lot of pressure to drop Hillcrest. Everything we went there for, it’s impossible.”

Bordow: Marvin Bagley III should never have been at Hillcrest Prep

Reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-460-1710. Follow him at twitter.com/azc_obert.