Marques Bolden.
If you want to know what could be the deciding factor in which school between traditional college basketball heavyweights Duke and Kentucky will be favored to follow 2016 NCAA champ Villanova as the next king of the sport, you could do worse than look to Bolden, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound De Soto (Texas) High School post player whose recruitment is apparently down to those two programs.
Bolden may or may not become the next Jahlil Okafor or Karl Anthony Towns - supremely polished big men who led the Blue Devils and Wildcats, respectively, to the 2015 Final Four, with the Devils emerging as champs.
Currently a top-15 player in most prep rankings, Bolden might not even start for either team, especially Duke, which has already signed the nation's top big man, Harry Giles, though Giles is still recovering from his second major knee surgery in four seasons.
But Bolden's presence in one of those programs directly damages the championship push of the school that finishes second for him, especially if it's UK, which would appear to have less potential NBA talent in the post than the Dookies.
Expected to make an announcement on or before April 17 - his 18th birthday - Bolden appears to be leaning slightly toward Duke, but most believe it's a toss-up.
Should he choose UK, the Blue Devils and the Wildcats would appear to be a toss-up to win it all. But they clearly aren't the only schools in the mix, beginning with defending champ Villanova, which could return every important player except Final Four MVP Ryan Arcidiacono and starting big man Daniel Ochefu.
National runner-up North Carolina should also challenge, despite the graduations of almost-hero Marcus Paige and consensus All-America forward Brice Johnson. In some ways, moving wing Theo Pinson to a true shooting guard opposite gifted point Joel Berry II could make the Tar Heels even tougher defensively, especially if Nate Britt continues to be a force off the bench at either guard spot. Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks and Justin Jackson would form one of the nation's nastiest front courts, and UNC's recruiting should get a boost from the NCAA finally determining the Baby Blues' sanctions for past academic fraud violations throughout the athletic department.
You'd also sleep on Indiana at your own embarrassment. Yes, point guard Yogi Ferrell finally graduates after first founding the school, then lettering on all five of the Hoosiers' national title teams, but James Blackman Jr. will return from knee surgery and wing Troy Williams could use a final season of experience. And should rising sophomore Thomas Bryant return for a second year in the pivot, IU could challenge for a Final Four spot.
Then there's UCLA, which likely already is growing weary of coach Steve Alford after the Bruins failed to reach the NCAA tourney this spring. All that should change when the nation's best point guard, Lonzo Ball, arrives after averaging close to a triple-double (23.7 points, 9.3 assists and 9.4 rebounds) for a state championship high school team in the Golden State. And never forget about Michigan State, which could wind up with no worse than the No. 3 recruiting class in the country if it lands the nation's top unsigned player, wing Josh Jackson - which it seems the favorite to do.
And a lot of the usual suspects - Kansas, Syracuse, Connecticut, Arizona, Virginia and Florida - could all be in the mix by season's end.
Of course, all of this could also be moot depending on which players opt for the pros, which won't be finalized until May 25.
What we do know is that Monday night's title game had the most thrilling conclusion ever, what with Carolina's Paige hitting an acrobatic, double-pumping 26-foot tying 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds to go, only to have Villanova's Kris Jenkins drill a similarly deep 3 for the win as the game expired.
And the quality of play from both teams throughout the tournament - UNC won each of its first five games by double figures, and 'Nova hit 50 percent or better from both the field and 3-point line in all six games - was surely at least partly due to senior- and junior-dominated squads.
And though UNC fans would gladly decline it, they're now about to be haunted for the next 25 years or so by what Kentucky fans have long called their "Christian Laettner moment." Just as every NCAA tournament telecast since Laettner knocked UK out of the 1992 tourney with a buzzer-beater to win the East Regional has begun with a replay of that shot, every future tourney for the foreseeable future is likely to include the Jenkins' tourney winner.
Only time will tell if Tar Heel Nation can resist the urge to wear "I still hate Jenkins" buttons from this point forward.
Yet Villanova coach Jay Wright certainly seemed to grasp UNC's pain when he said of the Tar Heels' senior stars: "Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige were just great examples of what you want college basketball players to be. They played with class, won with class and lost tonight with class."
Later, as he described what it was like to soak in "One Shining Moment," knowing Jenkins' game-winner would close out the tribute, Wright said, "It's amazing to be out there watching, standing up on the stage, seeing those kids cut down the net. I don't really think I have the words to explain it."
That's perfect, actually, for words seem incapable of doing justice to Monday night's magic.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.