National recruiting analyst changes Marques Bolden prediction from UK to Duke

After months of predicting five-star center Marques Bolden to the University of Kentucky, 247Sports national analyst Jerry Meyer changed his “Crystal Ball” pick to Duke on Wednesday evening.

Bolden — UK’s top remaining recruiting target in the class of 2016 — is expected to pick one of those two schools sometime in the next couple of weeks. The 6-foot-10 prospect from DeSoto, Texas is playing in this weekend’s Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Ore., where Meyer interviewed him and covered his team’s practice Wednesday.

Duke now holds a 71 percent advantage on Bolden’s 247Sports Crystal Ball page. Momentum started to shift to the Blue Devils starting about a week ago.

UK Coach John Calipari visited with Bolden and his family about two weeks ago, a couple of days before Bolden headed to Chicago to play in last week’s McDonald’s All-American Game. Bolden told Meyer on Wednesday that top Duke assistant Jeff Capel is scheduled to visit with him shortly after this weekend’s Hoop Summit.

Duke already has commitments from Harry Giles, arguably the No. 1 recruit in the country, McDonald’s All-Americans Frank Jackson and Jayson Tatum, four-star forward Javin DeLaurier and Australian wing Jack White.

UK has signed five five-star players for next season — Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox, Wenyen Gabriel, Sacha Killeya-Jones and Malik Monk — and currently has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country.

The addition of Bolden would move Duke’s class past UK for the top spot in the 247Sports rankings.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 10:22 PM with the headline "National recruiting analyst changes Marques Bolden prediction from UK to Duke."