The Duke Blue Devils know that they are going to be an extremely good team next year as they return a lot of players from a year ago and will bring in one of the top recruiting classes. The question with next year's team is whether they have the potential to be dominant, or if they will just be really good.
There are a couple of factors at play that can bring the team from one of the best in the nation to the no doubt preseason number one team. Those factors include Amile Jefferson's potential medical redshirt and Marques Bolden's decision.
We still have not received any word on a decision from Bolden, but Duke found out Friday morning that Jefferson was granted the medical redshirt and will get one more year of eligibility. Jefferson only played in nine games this past season before breaking his foot. The senior was not expected to miss the remainder of the season when it happened, but he didn't progress enough and didn't play again. That ended up being a blessing in disguise because now he gets another full year with what should be a really good team.
The question now becomes whether Jefferson's return will impact Bolden's decision. Bolden has not set an official date for his announcement yet, but he has said that it would be coming soon. The five-star center is down to just three schools (Duke, Kentucky and TCU), but it is expected that he is deciding between just Duke and Kentucky.
The short answer for how Jefferson's return will affect his decision is that it likely won't. All along, Jefferson was expected to get this medical redshirt and despite that, Duke has been the favorite to land a commitment from Bolden anyway. Duke will have an extremely deep frontcourt next season, so Bolden will have to earn his minutes, but he has said in the past that he is OK with that. Kentucky is in a similar situation, as they are will have a very deep team too, so no matter what Bolden decides, playing time won't be guaranteed, unless, of course, he chooses TCU. Bolden is ranked as the 20th best player overall and the second best center in the 2016 class, so his talent should allow him to find minutes wherever he chooses.
The 6-foot-10 center has the attention of all of college basketball, as his decision is one of the final recruiting dominoes to fall for next season. Bolden has said that it's getting late and he wants to make a decision soon, but as mentioned before, no announcement date is set. Duke received good news with Jefferson on Friday morning, and now they will hope to receive even more in the near future.