{"id":1144,"date":"2009-11-13T19:26:07","date_gmt":"2009-11-14T00:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/blog\/?p=1144"},"modified":"2022-01-18T14:32:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T22:32:35","slug":"barnes-recruitment-like-no-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/?p=1144","title":{"rendered":"Barnes Recruitment Like No Other"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was the official end of Funemployment. \u00a0That’s not to say I’d like to borrow some money. \u00a0I want you to give it to me. \u00a0Stop laughing.
\nWhile not working, I did what pretty much everyone else in the 919 did — waited to see where Harrison Barnes, the top player in the recruiting class of 2010, would go to school. \u00a0I had no idea. \u00a0Coaches involved had no idea. \u00a0I got no less than three calls before 1 p.m. from people in this media business, all to compare how much we didn’t<\/em> know.
\nAnd so ends as fascinating a recruitment as I can recall. \u00a0Of course, I haven’t paid too much attention over the years. \u00a0I did, however, keep pretty close watch on John Wall’s recruitment, and folks repeatedly told me that situation was as unconventional as any they could remember.
\nIf that’s the case, then Barnes’ has to take the cake.
\nEveryone knew Wall’s preferences, from schools to coaches. \u00a0Save for Roy Williams’ cameo telephone appearance, the only real question was how the grown folks would make enough peace for Wall to do what he wanted — to play for John Calipari. \u00a0It was interesting that Duke showed interest in a player that deviated from the school’s presumed recruiting profile, and the late appearance of Florida was an interesting wrinkle, but the ending to the saga was predictable.
\nUntil Barnes put Roy Williams picture on the projector, I don’t know of a soul whose last name wasn’t “Barnes” that knew what Harrison would say.
\nA 17 year-old can keep this secret so well that no one in the country really knew where he was going to college? \u00a0What’s weirder than that?
\nAnd if that’s not enough, the macro-level analysis is just as interesting.
\nBarnes became a huge story for two reasons — the curiosity generated when information is scarce, and Duke’s involvement. \u00a0The last few months have seen Duke take great strides to promote itself as a more personable and contemporary program, one that’s easier to sell to recruits. \u00a0But even in what appears to be a transition, Barnes seemed to be the recruit that most would presume Duke would get. \u00a0He reads Warren Buffett for fun, and carries himself with a polish that most Ivy Leaguers wish they had. \u00a0While it felt problematic to say he was “a Duke kid,” I’d be lying if I didn’t understand what people were trying to say.
\nDuke was the only school that would be crushed if it didn’t land Barnes. \u00a0Mike Krzyzewski and Co. were the presumed leader for several months. \u00a0Bill Self said he wasn’t even going to watch the announcement. \u00a0Iowa State could only be hoping. \u00a0UNC had Reggie Bullock, Scout.com’s No. 2 shooting guard for the class of 2010, making Barnes more luxurious than a necessary.
\nDuke lost him, and they lost him to the program they’re so fervently chasing for superiority in its vaunted rivalry (and, by extension, national supremacy). \u00a0And while this was open to myriad interpretation, Barnes’ statement that he had a great relationship with Coach K, but a great relationship with Williams and UNC’s players will raise the volume on already-audible whispers that Duke has fallen out of favor with elite basketball talent.
\nAfter losing Delvon Roe to Michigan State (which Williams passive-aggressively refers to in his autobiography), Ol’ Roy quickly got commitments from almost all the players in the recruiting classes of 2008, 2009 and 2010. \u00a0But while he has Bullock and Kendall Marshall locked in by January 2008, Barnes didn’t receive an offer until October of last year. \u00a0Williams came to the party late — late enough that many wonder if Williams recruited Barnes out of spite — and he left with what his worst enemy had his eye on since the needle hit the record.
\nIn a world where we do our damnedest to identify turning points before history is even made, those strategic facets of the story are positively delicious.
\nIn terms of basketball, it’s not the end of the world for Duke. \u00a0Those focused on such things say Kyrie Irving, a point guard committed to Duke for 2010, will be a great player. \u00a0The Blue Devils have lacked an elite point since Chris Duhon graduated in 2004. \u00a0Every elite point guard of the Krzyzewski era has reached an NCAA title game. \u00a0In strict basketball terms, Irving was a more important recruit than Harrison Barnes.
\nBut college sports are about branding, because branding and recruiting circularly fuel each other. \u00a0The strength of a school’s brand is reflected by its recruiting, and its recruiting represents and strengthens or weakens the brand.
\nWhen the hallmark of the Duke brand — academic excellence — isn’t enough to lure a top notch prospect that told anyone who’d listen how important school is to him, then something isn’t right.
\nThat isn’t merely fodder for Duke hatred. \u00a0That’s an unavoidable point that must be addressed if Duke hopes to catch North Carolina anytime soon.
\nAnd losing on Harrison Barnes just made doing so more difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was the official end of Funemployment. \u00a0That’s not to say I’d like to borrow some money. \u00a0I want you to give it to me. \u00a0Stop laughing. While not working, I did what pretty much everyone else in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-boblogs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bomanijones.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}