Friday, February 9, 2007

Barnett commitment a victory for 49ers

Good work by the Charlotte 49ers in landing Charlotte Victory Christian senior Javarris Barnett. First-year assistant coach Chris Cheeks was instrumental in landing Barnett, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard who turned a lot of heads during the Bojangles’ Shootout in December and immediately attracted the attention of college recruiters in attendance, including Cheeks.
Charlotte, stuck in the middle of ACC country, must battle hard for talented local players. In Barnett’s case, he was a player without statistics of a hot prospect, and he didn’t attend all the camps at which many recruiters judge talent. However, in a tournament against some other top prep players, he shined.
For that, he was worth taking a chance.
In recruiting battles today, perhaps more than in the past, chances have to be taken. Recruiting is a difficult business – you have to be a judge of current and future talent at the same time.
Barnett attracted attention from many major Division I schools. Several turned away once he made it clear he did not want to venture far from home, but coming out ahead of teams such as Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and College of Charleston (and former ACC coach Bobby Cremins) is a good sign for the 49ers.
JIM UTTER

2 comments:

Justin Ritchie said...

We always lose recruits to Wake Forest, so its miraculous that one finally swung our way. I'm just happy that he is a great student too!

Anonymous said...

It's good to see us get one from the ACC. I hope that he can continue to build off of his two high performance games and it's great that he is a good student!