COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In the morning we talked about Marques Bolden’s desire to get a great start on an excellent 2017-18 season at Duke: healthy, aggressive, confident. In the afternoon, he was limping again.

So in a sense, his sophomore season has begun in much the same way as his freshman year with the Blue Devils.

The difference this time is there still is time.

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Tuesday morning, Bolden was not among the 18 players kept as finalists to represent the United States at the FIBA U-19 World Cup in Egypt early next month. It was obviously not what he had in mind, but with the injury and some rust still on his game he was not as emphatic or dynamic as Auburn’s Austin Wiley, incoming freshman Mitchell Robinson of Western Kentucky, Brandon McCoy of San Diego State or high schoolers Jordan Brown and Bol Bol of California.

The rest of the squad by position, with six cuts still to make:

Guards: Carsen Edwards, Purdue; Romeo Langford, New Albany High (Ind.); Josh Okogie, Georgia Tech; Payton Pritchard, Oregon; Immanuel Quickey, John Carroll School (Md.).

Forwards: Kevin Huerter, Maryland; Louis King, Hudson Catholic High (N.J.); Kevin Knox, Kentucky; Chuma Okeke, Auburn; Cameron Reddish, Westtown School (Pa.); Quinton Rose, Temple; P.J. Washington, Kentucky.

However, Bolden still will have the opportunity for a head start on his second college season by joining the Blue Devils on their August trip to the Dominican Republic for two games against the Dominican national team. The Blue Devils will prepare to take a run at the 2018 Final Four, and the Dominicans will be preparing for the FIBA Americas Championships in an effort to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games.

"There was anxiety this morning for me because you know you're going to disappoint some of these kids," Calipari said. "What I hope is that the games they played against some really good players helped them

"I told these kids: We may be wrong. Please prove us wrong. Use this as fuel if you don't make the team."

Bolden told Sporting News the most important thing he took out of his difficult freshman year, which began with eight missed games because of ankle and foot injuries, was “maturity”. That should help as he manages one more disappointment in his basketball career.

“I really grew up a lot from my senior year to the end of my freshman year in college — just the maturity, how I approach the game now,” Bolden said. “It’s being in attack mode 100 percent of the time. Sometimes playing in high school, it would be really easy to take plays off because you were one of the top players. Coming into college, my coaches preached every day about playing hard, all the time.”

Bolden said one of the issues coaches have mentioned with his play is standing around too much, but with an opportunity Monday night to make a loud statement of his worth to the U19s that mostly what he was doing: standing. He was bothered by a sore hip and appeared in only one sequence in 90 minutes of scrimmage. He also worked for a short period to loosen the hip with a series of stretching exercises.

He will head back to prepare for his sophomore year in the more traditional manner, trying to build on lessons learned from a year in which he went from McDonald’s All-American and consensus top-10 recruit to just 6.5 minutes per game and DNPs in Duke’s final three games.

Bolden said that not appearing in the NCAA Tournament “really hurt … I kind of got really sick when we got to South Carolina, so I wasn’t able to suit up for both of the games. I wasn’t able to be out there to compete with my teammates. It’s definitely a feeling I’m going to hold onto until next March.”

Even with missing the start of the season and his inability to find a consistent spot in Duke’s rotation — he played a season-high 18 minutes and produced eight points and four rebounds in the Devils’ destruction of Miami, then followed that with 18 minutes and 1-of-4 shooting in the collapse against N.C. State — there were some questions about whether Bolden would return to Duke as a sophomore or enter the NBA Draft. All of his classmates are gone: guard Frank Jackson, wing Jayson Tatum, power forward Harry Giles.

“I really just talked it over with my family, my mom and dad, and a couple other people in my circle,” Bolden said. “I just felt it was best to just really try to get better. Because I hadn’t done much in college, and I was going to try to just jump to the league? I felt like I wouldn’t have been ready to the best of my ability. Just coming back, getting better, playing hard and getting that chance again felt like the right thing.”

Bolden said he most wants to improve “my motor,” and these three days represented a missed opportunity in that regard. But his return fills what would have been a major hole in the Duke frontcourt, and Mike Krzyzewski and his staff will continue pushing him hard to succeed.

He filled what would have been a massive hole in the Duke frontcourt by sticking around another year. Now, the trick is to fill it well.

“I understand how important I am to the group this year,” Bolden said. “I look forward to filling that big role. I’m looking forward to taking this journey with the freshmen that are coming in, helping them with the transition from HS to college.

“I want to start off strong: no injuries, no setbacks or anything. I need to get past last year and get ready for a better start.”

There are five months between now and November. Still time. But he’ll need to spend it well.