Harrison Barnes Officially Cuts His List to Six Schools
Words. Jason Jordan
Ames High (IA) star Harrison Barnes, HighSchoolHoop’s top-rated player, confirmed to us that he has trimmed his list of schools from 12 to just six.
Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, UCLA and Iowa State all made the cut, while Florida, Stanford, Minnesota, Kentucky, Southern Cal and TCU all got the boot.
Barnes plans to give each school an official visit except Iowa State, which he plans to visit unofficially because of the close proximity. Harrison told us that he’s setup two visits so far; North Carolina on Sept. 4-5 (which means he’ll be in attendance for the Tar Heels alumni game on Sept. 4) and Duke on Oct. 23-24 (which means he’ll be in attendance when the Blue Devils kickoff the season with an exhibition game against Pfeiffer).
Barnes has maintained that he has no leaders, but we’ve heard throughout Barnes’ recruitment that Duke and Kansas were the schools to beat.
That hasn’t changed, but now the same source tells us that North Carolina has made up significant ground with Barnes. Last week Bishop O’Connell High (Va.) point guard Kendall Marshall, a North Carolina commit who is not the aforementioned source, told us that he’s working hard to have Barnes join him in the Tar Heels’ 2010 class.
“I know that he likes Duke,” said Marshall. “But I’m working on him. I think we’ve got a good shot too.”
All indications from sources I’ve seen have him going to Duke. The basketball program and academics are important to him.
THERE SHOULD BE NO CHOICE AT ALL HERE. IF YOU WANT TO PLAY 40 MINUTES A NIGHT AND STAR, THEN GO TO IOWA STATE WHICH IS IN YOUR BACK YARD. BUT MR. BARNES, IF YOU WANT TO GO SOMEWHERE THAT WILL TRULY TAKE YOUR GAME AND YOU AS A PERSON TO ANOTHER LEVEL, THEN DUKE SHOULD BE THE OVERWHELMING CHOICE. I MUST ADMIT TO BEING AN NC STATE FAN BUT DUKE IS JUST THE PLACE WHERE I HAVE SEEN THE MOST AMAZING PLAYERS HAPPEN UPON AN AWESOME PROGRAM THAT IS BIGGER THAN JUST THE TALENT ON THE TEAMS. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, GO WHERE YOU WILL BECOME THE BIGGEST WINNER, DUKE.
rock chalk jayhawk
go crimson & blue
Mr. Barnes, thanks for being you, love to have you in Big 12 if it meets your needs.
Lawrence is easy for your folks to drive to see games yet still out of town for you to ‘be away’.
Roy will tell you about which school he would rather have you attend, Duke or Kansas. He knows our tradition first hand, he added so much to it.
Rule it down to just 2 schools and then ask the out coach to comment. Even if that is Self.