Kentucky basketball target Marques Bolden commits to Duke

Seconds after five-star basketball recruit Marques Bolden unzipped his jacket to reveal a Duke T-shirt, his mother, visibly overcome with emotion, stood up, hugged her 6-foot-11 son and screamed one sentence over and over again.

“I didn’t know!” she said. “I didn’t know!”

Whether Bolden did or didn’t actually tell his mother of his college decision beforehand, he sure didn’t tell many others.

This one had fans, recruiting analysts and even the college coaches involved guessing right up until the very end.

The wait wasn’t worth it for the University of Kentucky.

Bolden — the No. 1 center in the class of 2016 and UK’s top recruiting target for the past several months — announced his commitment to Duke more than a month after his initial self-imposed deadline, finally revealing his decision in the gym at DeSoto High School, which he led to a Texas state championship earlier this year.

The first question for Bolden was obvious.

“What took so long? I mean, it was really a tough decision,” he said. “It was a decision that could determine the outcome of the rest of my life. I’m putting my life in the hands of these coaches for the next couple of years.”

Bolden said the deciding factor in his recruitment turned out to be the relationship he formed with the Duke coaching staff, which has developed quite the off-court rivalry with John Calipari and UK’s coaches in recent years.

The addition of Bolden to an already loaded Blue Devils’ recruiting class prompted Scout.com and 247Sports to place Duke ahead of UK for the No. 1 class of 2016.

Rivals.com and ESPN kept the Cats at No. 1, a reminder that Calipari’s latest group of recruits, which includes five Top 25 prospects, is not to be overlooked.

“Bolden was the icing on the cake, if anything,” said Scout.com’s Evan Daniels. “Kentucky still has a great class. Obviously, Marques Bolden was a guy who they wanted to have on board. And I’m sure they’re a little disappointed.

“But they still have a really good class, and I think this just means that Edrice Adebayo is going to get more minutes in the post.”

Adebayo — the 6-foot-9, 240-pound power forward from North Carolina — will now likely be the main man in UK’s frontcourt for next season, but he might have been that even if Bolden had picked the Wildcats.

A dominating force in the paint, Adebayo is the type of player the Cats were missing on this past season’s team, and his performances on the postseason all-star circuit, including his practices against his fellow five-star post players in the class of 2016, indicate that he’s ready for the lofty expectations that will meet him in Lexington.

“He can certainly shoulder those types of expectations,” Daniels said. “He’s a strong, physical post presence with good athleticism. He’s going to defend the rim well, he’s going to be a very good rebounder, and I think he can be very productive for Kentucky as a freshman.”

UK’s frontcourt will also get a boost from 6-11 power forward Sacha Killeya-Jones and possibly 6-10 wing Wenyen Gabriel, who was recruited to play on the perimeter but is certainly capable of playing minutes down low next season.

Returning to the Cats’ frontcourt will be 7-footer Isaac Humphries, big-bodied redshirt Tai Wynyard and senior Derek Willis, another player who can play in the paint or on the perimeter.

Calipari is also waiting on a stay-or-go decision from Marcus Lee, who was UK’s leading rebounder and shot-blocker last season and has until Wednesday to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and retain his final year of college eligibility.

Lee seemed ready to move on during his interviews at last week’s NBA Combine in Chicago, but his performance at the pre-draft event was widely criticized, and he’s still contemplating a return to Kentucky for his senior season.

It appears unlikely that UK will add anyone else to its recruiting class of 2016, unless there’s a surprise reclassification from a player currently in the 2017 class.

Five-star Turkish center Omer Yurtseven was briefly linked to UK, but the Wildcats were never actually recruiting him.

Yurtseven, who played for a pro team overseas and likely will have some NCAA hurdles to clear before he is ruled eligible, committed to North Carolina State earlier this week.

Bolden’s commitment to Duke leaves fellow Texas big man Jarrett Allen as the only uncommitted, top-50 player in the class of 2016. Allen, who was also a McDonald’s All-American, took an official visit to Kentucky last fall and was still in contact with Calipari as recently as a few weeks ago.

UK had clearly prioritized Bolden over Allen, however, and it’s unlikely that Cats will get back into his recruitment.

“I think that door is closed,” Daniels said.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Kentucky basketball target Marques Bolden commits to Duke."