Marques Bolden (Photo : Twitter)
The battle for college basketball's top recruiting class between the top two recruiters boiled down to one recruit.
Center Marques Bolden is described as a low-post scorer, an old-school slotman who can score with his back to the basket. SB Nation writer Ricky O'Donnell described him as "Jahlil Okafor light" with his skill set. Despite today's small-ball offense, a player like that is still useful as O'Donell mentioned. "Surround that type of player with the right personnel and it can have a devastating impact on college basketball."
Two teams who definitely have the right personnel are Duke and Kentucky. These teams have reloaded heavily for the 2016 season and are in a deadlock on top recruiting class honors. Bolden will be the tiebreaker.
With Duke, Bolden will join the highest ranked frontliner in Harry Giles and veteran Amile Jefferson who was given the redshirt and allowed to play again, as expected. But both players are coming off major injuries. Bolden could start right away and show his mettle to allow more time for Giles and Jefferson to recover. Chase Jeter and Javin DeLaurier round out the star-studded frontline if Bolden goes to Durham.
The Blue Devils are touted as the early favorites even without Bolden as they will have a fearsome backcourt with returning Grayson Allen and McDonald's All American co-MVP Frank Jackson. No.3 overall recruit Jayson Tatum is their top swingman.
It presents an envious dilemma. "Getting everyone to buy in -- from his five-star freshmen to his upperclassmen -- is going to be Coach K's biggest challenge. There are only so many shots and so many minutes to go around on a team this deep and talented," SB Nation pointed out.
Kentucky is not that far from Duke, but they will rely heavily on the freshmen if all the Wildcats who declared don't return. They do have a sophomore center in Isaac Humphries but Bolden could start over him. They also have top point guard De'Aaron Fox and returning Isiah Briscoe as playmakers.
Bolden will join the best collection of bigs if he commits with John Calipari, but despite recruiting four five stars, "what Kentucky really needs is a small forward who can shoot."
Marques Bolden will walk into a contender either way, but SB Nation gave the edge to Duke simply because Coach K has shown to be better at managing a low post talent like Okafor.
The Crystal Ball prediction of 24/7 Sports also had Bolden landing at Duke with 68% of their experts picking the Blue Devils and only 27% choosing Kentucky.
