Read that NYPost article I posted above. Darius seems to have figured it out on his own: he knew what he needed (strength, bulk), talked to people to find out where they'd gotten it, identified the S&C coach he wanted and told his handlers to make it happen. They tried to talk him down, then they and said coach tried to scare him off with a ridiculously heavy workload, and he said "thank you may I have another."
Jeff Van Gundy had an interesting comment during the playoffs: he was working with USA Basketball when Bazley came to their camp and he said he'd "never seen a player so unprepared" and went on to explain that he didn't mean skill-wise, and definitely not talent-wise, but that he simply wasn't physically developed enough yet to compete against those bigger and more mature bodies. It occurs to me that that's about when Bazley started the process; maybe that feedback at the time was the trigger? (JVG went on to call him the "most improved player in the bubble," a comment he watered down slightly a couple weeks later by saying the same thing about Duncan Robinson.*)
I think one of the problems with youth sports in the US is that the heavy emphasis on competition from an early age means we reward the kids who win the puberty lottery. Bazley got tall early, but he didn't get big. He was getting bounced around in the lane even in the CHL; I can imagine how that played out when he got to USAB. I'm glad he didn't let himself fall through the cracks at that point.
*No disrespect to Robinson intended; that's another guy who's worked his off. But they can't both be "most."
