College Basketball
Top prospect Barnes picks North Carolina
By Dane Huffman Nov 13, 2009
The wins just keep on coming for North Carolina.
The defending national champions scored a major coup off the court Friday when high school senior Harrison Barnes announced he will play for the Tar Heels.
Barnes, ranked the No. 1 prospect in the country by recruiting site Scout.com, made the announcement at the gymnasium at Ames High School in Iowa. Barnes is a 6-foot-6, 190-pound forward and a strong student.
His final six schools were Duke, Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, Iowa State and Oklahoma.
Barnes had been coveted by Duke, and the two long-time rivals locked in a fierce struggle for his services. Carolina got a huge boost when Barnes attended its dazzling alumni game in September. Watching Michael Jordan and other Tar Heel greats return to Chapel Hill made an impression, as did a last-second effort by Coach Roy Williams, who swooped in to visit Barnes on the same night as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Barnes will join a UNC recruiting class that already includes 6-6 shooting guard Reggie Bullock of Kinston and 6-3 point guard Kendall Marshall of Arlington, Va. Both are rated five-star recruits by Scout.com.
Bullock is rated the No. 11 player in the country and Marshall is No. 21, according to the Scout.com rankings.
Barnes made his announcement in dramatic fashion, going to the podium as the crowd waited and saying he would call the coach he was choosing. He used the Skype technology to make a video call, and as the crowd waited, Barnes said, "Coach Roy Williams?"
"Coach Roy Williams?" Barnes asked, as Williams, surrounded by his North Carolina team, appeared on the video screen.
"Can you hear us? We've got the whole team here," Williams said.
"I can see that," Barnes said "Coach, I know that you're in practice right now and I need to go sign my letter of intent but I just wanted to let you know that I'll be joining you guys on the squad and I can't wait to play with you guys."
"All right!" Williams said.
Barnes said he wanted to do the announcement in an unusual way.
"We wanted to do something big because we thought this would be special," Barnes said.
Barnes' decision was a tight secret, with few leaks about where he would go. Barnes said he called all the coaches Thursday night to thank them for recruiting him but did not tell them where he was going.
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Most Recent Comments
RE: Top prospect Barnes picks North Carolina
I don't think any State fans really prefer a Carolina loss to a State win, though. Who does that?
Let me introduce you to my sister-in-law as well as my niece and nephews whom she is raising to be the same way - as her mother did her. I kid you not.
As far as why would anyone 'chose' to be a State fan, what kind of fan would say that??? It is only in recent years that State hasn't done well athletically. Unless you are very young, you've lived through good years. As one who has been a Carolina fan since 1st grade, I've lived thru bad years, but never waivered in my support. Not thru the early Mack years, Torbush/Bunting or the Doherty years.
I'm just saying, NC State gets no respect. Young kids probably choose Duke or Carolina back when they have a choice. Of course there are old-timers that have been around long enough to remember State in the 80's when we weren't so bad. But it's been 20 years since those good ole days. Why would a kid today choose to be a State fan, when his Duke and Carolina fan-friends will continually mock him for it with every State loss?
Are you sure those family members PREFER a Carolina loss to a State win? Or do they just love both almost equally, so that it just
seems that way?
RE: Top prospect Barnes picks North Carolina
I don't think any State fans really prefer a Carolina loss to a State win, though. Who does that?
Let me introduce you to my sister-in-law as well as my niece and nephews whom she is raising to be the same way - as her mother did her. I kid you not.
As far as why would anyone 'chose' to be a State fan, what kind of fan would say that??? It is only in recent years that State hasn't done well athletically. Unless you are very young, you've lived through good years. As one who has been a Carolina fan since 1st grade, I've lived thru bad years, but never waivered in my support. Not thru the early Mack years, Torbush/Bunting or the Doherty years.
RE: Top prospect Barnes picks North Carolina
^^Your response to my post didn't address it at all. I ask you which fan is better? The one who graduated from State, but would rather see Carolina lose than State win? Or the Carolina fan who didn't go to school there??
- Posted by heelsfaninraleigh
Any fan that would rather see another school lose than their own school win is probably the least deserving of any respect. So I would answer your question with "the Carolina fan". And there's nothing wrong with being a Carolina fan despite not going there. It's the bigmouths with such an attitude, that Carolina is the best thing since sliced bread, and they didn't go there. They're the most annoying fans of all probably. (There are surely some State fans like that, too. But I doubt there are as many. Why would anyone CHOOSE to pull for State when they are so bad at pretty much everything? I'm sure some do, though. They just don't get as many opportunities to run their mouths.)
I don't think any State fans really prefer a Carolina loss to a State win, though. Who does that?
RE: Top prospect Barnes picks North Carolina
^^Your response to my post didn't address it at all. I ask you which fan is better? The one who graduated from State, but would rather see Carolina lose than State win? Or the Carolina fan who didn't go to school there??
RE: Top prospect Barnes picks North Carolina
just wanted to chime in on that whaterver it was post with all teh hate and pretty much ignorant drivel... To all the other team fans, please don't associate all UNC fans with this post as 1) I'm more than disgusted with the pure stupidity of the poster and his moronic tantrum of hate, and 2), Trolls live everywhere, not just under the bridge.
- Posted by Cragsdale
You're right, Cragsdale. But the people that have to pull for a winner choose Carolina because, well, they win. A lot. I'm talking about people that will never go to college, much less Carolina. They are the loudest mouths out there, and there are a lot of them. That's why we hate Carolina so much. It's THOSE people. Most Carolina fans I know that are the "good" ones are the ones that actually went to school there. They're some of the nicest people, and rarely rub anything in my face. I'm actually happy for them when Carolina wins something. It's the bad ones that make me wish that Carolina would never win another game. But if that happened, they'd just pick another winner and go with them and continue doing the same thing.
Your bitterness really does consume you, doesn't it? My sister-in-law is a state graduate who shares your bitterness. You know, the typical state fan who takes more pleasure in a Carolina loss than she does a state win. Is she a better fan than the Carolina fan who never went to Carolina???
I'm so sick of you people who think you have the right to decide who gets to be a fan of a certain team and who doesn't. According to your rules probably 1/2 of college sports fans couldn't be fans either because they never went to any college or they went to a small school that may not have a football team. I hope you are never judged as harshly as you judge Carolina fans.
I'm not bitter. I just have no respect for the big mouths that CHOOSE a winner to pull for. The same is pretty much true for the NY Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, etc. People like that didn't earn anything. It's EASY to choose Carolina when you're free to make a choice. How hard is it to pull for a team that only loses 4-5 basketball games in a lot of years. More power to them. I respect that, and I'm happy for the true fans. It's the idiot big mouths that I have no respect for.
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