Duke Basketball: White, Bolden unsung heroes of win over UK

The four freshman of Duke Basketball are going to get a lot of the praise for what they did on Tuesday night, but two role players truly stood out.

The production value of Marques Bolden and Jack White were truly unknown coming into Tuesday night’s game with the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats in the State Farm Champions Classic.

Both players were entering their junior season and for Bolden he has had high expectations since he came into Durham two years ago as an McDonalds All-American along side Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles, and Frank Jackson.

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However, for White, he also came into Duke with that class of players but coming from Australia, no one knew when or if he would ever crack the rotation in his four years.

Jack White was named captain along side of Javin DeLaurier two weeks ago and he and Bolden played like the upperclassmen leaders they have to be for this Duke team to have success this season.

Despite both players being in foul trouble, Bolden scored seven points in 26 minutes, as well as pulling down four rebounds, one assist, and one block.

Three of Bolden’s four rebounds were on the offensive backboards and perhaps his best play of the night came on a offensive rebound and he brought the ball back down the floor but then showed great improvement by trying to go back up with the ball. He got fouled, was turned around with his back to the basket and somehow got the ball to go in.

As for Jack White, he was all over the court. The junior captain was on the floor for 30 minutes and he scored nine points while chasing down 11 rebounds, six offensive and five defensive, with three assists and two steals.

White made four of his eight shots, but the only area of the game he struggled with was his three point shooting as he only made one of his five attempts, mostly all three point shots coming from the baseline corner.

Having veteran players that can perform on a big stage like Tuesday night was, is huge for this young and inexperienced Duke team because in all honest, expecting 89 points a night from R.J. Barrett, Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish, and Tre Jones is completely unrealistic.

Both Jack White and Marques Bolden will look to have another strong performance on Sunday afternoon as the Blue Devils will have their home opener on Veterans Day against the Army Black Knights.

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