Duke Basketball: Blue Devils need production from Marques Bolden

There should be tons of production from the wings on the Duke Basketball team, but the Blue Devils need their former five star recruit to give them some production as well.

As the No. 16 overall player, No. 2 at his position, No. 5 in his region, and the No. 4 player in the state of Texas in the Class of 2016, according to ESPN, Marques Bolden has frankly been a major disappointment for the Blue Devils through his first two seasons in Durham.

The argument can be made that he was buried on the depth chart and he was injured, but a player ranked that high should be able to break through and crack the rotation for a coach and a program that saw a lot of value in this player.

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Bolden averaged 6.5 minutes during his freshman year and then only saw his minutes double during his sophomore campaign to 12.9 minutes.

In both his freshman and sophomore season, Bolden didn’t provide the Blue Devils much when he was on the floor, averaging 1.5 points as a freshman and 3.9 points as a sophomore.

The struggles continued for Marques Bolden on Duke’s Canada Tour as he failed to score a point, only attempting three shots and starting in two out of the three games.

Bolden was clearly out played by fellow big men Javin DeLaurier and Antonio Vrankovic as Bolden seemed to be benched in the second half against the University of Toronto.

Earlier in the off-season, Coach K said that he and the rest of the coaching staff expected big things from Bolden this season and that he could be one of the best big men in the country.

The 2018-19 season has definitely gotten off on the wrong foot for Bolden and he quickly needs to turn it around in fall practices because Duke needs his length and size down in the paint.

Even if Bolden does not prove to be that big of a scoring threat, the Blue Devils need rebounding down low and a big body to take up space in the driving lanes and Bolden can provide that at six-foot-eleven-inches and 246 pounds.

After improving his rebounding total from 26 total rebounds in 2016-17 to 104 total rebounds last season, at least Bolden has shown in improvement on the glass where he should be able to help Duke this season.

It’s probably much more complicated than this, but if Bolden showed a little more effort, intensity, and emotion, he will definitely end up on the good side of Duke fans even if he is still struggling on the court.

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