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With Duke and UNC already drooling over the nation's top recruit, Barnes, an Ames, Iowa native, was recently seen wearing an Iowa State sweatshirt. Let the wild speculation begin.
Let’s see here: Harrison Barnes has a poker face, he keeps info close to the chest, yada, yada, ah yes, here it is:
Friday afternoon on ESPNU (4 p.m. ET), Barnes will let everyone in on one of the biggest recruiting secrets in decades. He is holding all the cards, and he knows it.
If you’re stuck at work and/or don’t have ESPNU, don’t fear! We’ll have the announcement here as soon as it is made.
Harrison Barnes, the nation's top high school prospect in the class of 2010, seemingly has his pick of any basketball powerhouse he wants, and already has Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams fighting for him. So would he really pick Iowa State? That's the question being asked since he was seen wearing that school's sweatshirt, creating quite the Cyclone of reaction.
Now everyone and their grandma in Central Iowa thinks Barnes is coming to Iowa State. Hell, I was on Cyclonefanatic where some people are saying that "Roy Williams looked pissed, so maybe Barnes told him he wasn't coming?"... Ugh. Like anyone really knows what Roy Williams could possibly be thinking...
[...]
I have no idea what the whole sweatshirt ordeal is. I mean the guy has lived in Ames his whole life, and it's a town centered primarily on ISU. He's bound to have some ISU gear, along with the gear of other schools recruiting him (and maybe even more). Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not. Either way, I'm not losing sleep over it.
Considering Barnes is from Ames, Iowa, and Iowa State is in Ames, it's not a huge leap to think that maybe it was just a sweatshirt he had lying around, and nothing more. Unless ...
[Dan] Shanoff asks "given that Barnes is obviously a one-and-done player, why not stay home, be The Guy and try to do something special in-state. At Duke or UNC, he's just another star recruit."
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And forget about how he can help them in his one year, he can help the future of the program as well. He can take the school and put it on the mind of all the AAU and summer camp circuit players he interacts with. If he becomes what they think he might, he can be the greatest recruiting tool the school has ever seen.
Think Michael Beasley and how he put K State on the map. Barnes can do the same thing, but with more credibility because of his local upbringing.
The world of college basketball recruiting, where a simple sweatshirt can make people freak out and begin clearing space in trophy cases.
Harrison Barnes is a 6'6 foward from Ames, Iowa that's created quite a stir of the course of his time in high school. His coach compares him to "Elvis" on the court. With a combination of deft shooting, powerful dunks, and eons of athleticism, Barnes is the top high school prospect in the class of 2010, and as you might expect, he's got the attention of every college coach.
Two, in particular, appear as front-runners. From the Charlotte Observer:
It's quite possible Barnes' decision may come down to North Carolina or Duke – the light hue or royal blue. If so, a legion of fans on one side will be giddy and those on the other side sad and a bit bitter. Talk about some message-board trash-talking.
"There's a little tension there, to say the least," Barnes said. "I've definitely heard it from both sides."
Though Duke had been considered the favorite to land Barnes through much of the recruiting process, Barnes was in Chapel Hill recently to see the spectacle that was North Carolina's Alumni Game and it made quite an impression.
"It's very humbling to think you can be a part of a great tradition like that," Harrison Barnes said last week.
"No one else can roll out Michael Jordan and all those pros for one event," said Dave Telep, the national basketball recruiting director for scout.com.
Barnes, who hasn't set a timetable on any decision, will visit with Duke in October, and he's already been to Stanford, where the coaching staff arranged a meeting with none other than Condoleezza Rice. With heavy hitters like Duke and North Carolina going head-to-head--to say nothing of Ms. Rice and Michael Jordan--this race figures to have a spectacular finish.
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Odds Shark 
Harrison Barnes Breaks Out The Skype Machine To Select UNC Over Duke
Top-ranked recruit Harrison Barnes has signed a letter of intent with UNC, opting for the Tarheels on Friday over Duke, Oklahoma, Iowa State, UCLA and Kansas.
After a long, and impressive, speech in which he thanked his friends, family and others who made this possible, Barnes made the audience wait a few extra minutes by going all Web 2.0 on us and breaking out the Skype machine. That's right -- he Skype'd in the coach of the team he was about to select. After a brief technical glitch, UNC coach Roy Williams and the entire UNC basketball team appeared on a projected screen behind Barnes.
Dan Shanoff, expert of all things "webby", was impressed:
Evolution? Eh, I guess. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but what's wrong with just picking up the hat of the team you're going to select and putting it on your head? (Also: please get off my lawn.)
If generic quotes from Barnes about his new team are what you're after, we have you covered with such classically scripted, yet well-delivered lines as:
Roy Williams, out-recruiting Coach K since 2003. But hey, at least you got Mason Plumlee!
Nov 13 4:19p by Chris Mottram - 0 comments