The Marques Bolden situation isn't going away, and it doesn't look like there is an end in sight. Bolden is the top recruit left available, and he has arguably the two best programs waiting on him to make a decision. Those two programs, Duke and Kentucky, are the final two schools on Bolden's list.
Bolden initially wanted to announce his decision prior to his 18th birthday, but it has now been two weeks since then and we still haven't heard from him. The five-star center has said in the past that he doesn't want to prolong his recruitment, but that is exactly what he is doing. While some may think he is milking it, his high school coach believes he is truly struggling with the decision.
For the most part Duke has been considered the heavy favorite to land Bolden all along. That is still the case right now, based on what experts believe, but based on the amount of time he is taking to make his decision Duke may not have any sort of edge at all.
While Bolden is still struggling with his decision some of his possible future teammates are confident that he will eventually choose Duke. First Harry Giles said, a little more than a month ago, that he believed Bolden would choose Duke. Now Jayson Tatum, another Duke commit, has expressed the same type of feeling.
"Of course we're not done getting players in our class; we still want Marques Bolden," Tatum wrote in a blog. "I'm feeling pretty confident that we'll get him. We talk to him a lot in group chats and we hang out with him a lot on the trips that we've been going to over the last few weeks so we're feeling pretty confident. He's a big piece for us!"
Tatum's belief that Bolden will commit to Duke is certainly justified considering they likely forged a good relationship in all of the time they have spent together, but there are likely Kentucky players who feel the same way as Tatum does. The difference is that we have heard from two Duke players how confident they are that they will get Bolden, but we have not yet heard from any Kentucky players about their confidence levels regarding Bolden's decision.
As has been mentioned many times, Bolden's decision will decide which school has the top ranked recruiting class in the nation for 2016. The 6-foot-11 center is ranked as the 16th best player and the second best center in the 2016 class, and whichever team he chooses will be better off for it. At this point, though, fans of both schools likely just want to know where he will play next year as the anticipation has been way up for a very long time.
