UPDATE: Harrison Barnes is a Tar Heel

UPDATE: Harrison Barnes has announced his intentions to go to UNC. Huge get for Roy Williams. Not only is Barnes projected as the top pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, but he will be able to slide into the small forward role that UNC is missing this year. If by some miracle, Ed Davis stays another year, can you imagine a front line of Barnes, Henson, Davis, Tyler Zeller, and the Wear twins?

Duke fans must be miserable. Barnes has had a long and close relationship with Coach K, and many thought that he was destined to be a Dookie. Its one thing to lose a recruit to Kentucky (Patrick Patterson, John Wall) or Georgetown (Greg Monroe), but to lose a kid to their Tobacco Road rivals?

Maybe all that talk about the return of Coach K's recruiting prowess was a rush to judgement.


Harrison Barnes, the 6'7" wing from Ames, Iowa, will be announcing his college decision today live on ESPN U. It will happen at some point between 2-4:30 pm during the signing day special. We will update this page when the announcement is made.

One thing to note about today - if anyone says they have inside information about where Barnes is headed, they are lying to you. There may have never been such a high-profile recruit that kept his decision making process so close to the chest.

We've written about Barnes a couple times over the last two weeks (here and here), but given the excitement around college basketball circles over Barnes' decision, we figured it would be best to just copy and paste our thoughts on each of the six schools still on his list after the jump:

• Duke: Assuming that Kyle Singler and Irving both return to Durham, can you imagine a starting line-up of Irving, Seth Curry, Barnes, Singler, (insert 6'10" white guy), with Andre Dawkins, Tyler Thornton, and (insert two more 6'10" white guys) coming off the bench? Can you say national title?
• UNC and Kansas: His effect on both schools will be determined by who actually comes back to school. Will Xavier Henry or John Henson stick around for more than a year? Are Ed Davis and Cole Aldrich locks to enter the draft? Assuming those guys are gone, there will probably be more minutes available at the small forward spot at UNC than at Kansas, but that shouldn't matter as Barnes will likely be a starter from day one at either school. Kansas is probably better equipped to handle not getting a commitment, but both schools are going to be in the national title conversation regardless of whether or not Barnes wears their jersey.
• Oklahoma: Jeff Capel probably isn't going to be lucky enough to have Willie Warren return to school for his junior season, which means that he will be losing a huge number of points (Tony Crocker graduates as well). Barnes will step in and be the Sooners go-to scorer the second he gets on campus, but it is much less likely that he will be a Final Four contender in Norman. Does Barnes want to post huge stats and win a bunch of individual awards (a la a Kevin Durant), or does he want to compete for a national title?
• UCLA: The Bruins are very young this year, but with two consecutive loaded recruiting classes, a season of maturation could be enough to get Ben Howland's team back to national prominence come 2011. Tyler Honeycutt, Mike Moser, and Malcolm Lee will make minutes more difficult to come by in Westwood, but, as is the case with UNC, Barnes should be good enough to start immediately. Without him, they are one of the best teams out west. With him, they are in the national title conversation.
  
• Iowa State: If Craig Brackins returns to school, Iowa State may have the pieces to make a run at the tournament. If not, then, well, Barnes will spend a year playing in anonymity.
  

If you are interested, you can go here to read about all of Barnes' recruiting visits.