Tar Heels’ Barnes slowly growing into potential
by Steve Wieberg on Mar. 03, 2011, under USA Today Sports
By her count, Shirley Barnes has missed no more than half a dozen or so basketball games that her first-born has played. Summer-league. High school. Now in college at North Carolina.
Back in November and December, she says, she’d fidget in her seat as she watched him with the Tar Heels and wonder to herself: Who is that kid?
So celebrated, so can’t-miss was Harrison Barnes coming out of Ames, Iowa, that he was anointed a preseason All-American by the Associated Press before he ever pulled on a college uniform. A couple of media outlets went further than that, projecting the 18-year-old as the national player of the year. Those expectations were preposterously high, of course, but guys such as Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and John Wall before him had exploded as freshmen to immediate superstardom.
Barnes wasn’t bad. But he was hardly great out of the gate, and neither was Carolina as a team.
“We’d talk before a game. He was ready to go,” Shirley says. “But then when he’d get on the court, it was like, ‘My goodness, what is going on here?’ He just didn’t look like himself.”
What she sees now is closer to character.
North Carolina has kicked it in since mid-January, winning 11 of 12 games, moving to 23-6 overall and No. 13 in the polls and arriving at Saturday’s regular-season finale at home with dead aim at an Atlantic Coast Conference title (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, CBS). Deliciously, the opponent is fourth-ranked and league co-leading Duke (27-3).
Barnes’ arc follows the Heels’. The 6-8, 210-pound forward is operating more comfortably and confidently on the wing in coach Roy Williams’ system, averaging better than 17 points in his last 10 games and showing a willingness to take — and ability to hit — the big shot. None has been bigger than Wednesday night’s, a three-pointer from the top of the key with three seconds left to beat Florida State 72-70 and preserve the magnitude of the looming showdown with Duke.
It capped an 18-point performance. Barnes, who counted Duke among his final half-dozen potential destinations before opting for Chapel Hill, also is asserting himself on the offensive boards and beginning to dig in, Williams says, on defense.
“Having to take a step back, face some adversity, climb back … it took awhile. It’s the first time I’ve faced that,” Barnes says.
Yes, he was a bit humbled. “It just increased my hunger, made me more competitive,” he says. “It adds a little toughness to you.”
He still isn’t Durant, Beasley or Wall … or even Jared Sullinger, the freshman strongman who has helped lift Ohio State to the top of this season’s rankings. Barnes figures to be named next week as the ACC’s top rookie but isn’t among the five finalists for the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s inaugural Wayman Tisdale Award, given to the nation’s top freshman.
Fact is, he has missed more shots — making less than 41% from the field — than all but a couple of his teammates have taken in 29 games. He needs to cut down on his nearly three turnovers per 40 minutes.
“I’ve always felt that to be a truly great player, there’s something you have to do great,” Williams says. “He’s going to have more than one thing.
“He’s not great right now at any phase. He’s going to be at scoring — whether it’s shooting, driving, whatever. He’s going to be a great offensive rebounder. He has a chance to be a great defender. That’s three pretty good things right there. … It’s going to come. But it’s a process.”
Future at Carolina uncertain
Will it be the Tar Heels’ only chance to dance with Barnes?
Five years before he was born, Shirley Barnes started taping Michael Jordan’s NBA games — every one that showed up on television until he retired for the second time — so any son she bore could see Jordan’s greatness. A young Harrison (full name: Harrison Bryce Jordan Barnes) would study His Airness instead of taking in Saturday cartoons.
“You just watch him,” Harrison says, “and you see a play you like and you rewind it. Dissect the move a little bit, see if you can go out on the court and emulate it. See his court presence, how he impacted a game without necessarily dominating (with) the basketball.”
See, too, how Jordan craved the ball when a game’s outcome hung in the balance.
This season, or at least its fitful start, has raised questions about where Barnes’ playing ceiling is and whether he should extend what once was foreseen as a one-year stay at Carolina before stepping into the NBA.
“I have to consider that when the time comes,” he says. “Obviously, I didn’t anticipate struggling. But you’ve got to just roll with the punches. … Whichever way I decide to go, I’ll be prepared.”
If he opts for the pros, former Manhattan, St. John’s and New Mexico coach Fran Fraschilla predicts he’ll land somewhere in the top 15 picks in the June draft. But no longer is he projected as the No. 1.
“He’s not an explosive, wow-you-with-athleticism type of young man. He’s a very good, very fundamentally sound player who’ll be a piece of an NBA team’s puzzle,” says Fraschilla, who works as an analyst for ESPN and recommends that Barnes take the additional year. “He’s not Michael Jordan.”
Perhaps not. But in at least one respect, there’s a glimmer of resemblance.
Barnes, USA TODAY’ national high school player of the year in 2010, had knocked down four go-ahead or game winning shots for North Carolina before Wednesday night. Trailing by a point at FSU, Williams drew up a final play during a timeout with 11 seconds left and had no hesitation. The freshman was to get the shot again.
The plan was to attack the basket, but Barnes surveyed the congestion in front of him and followed his instinct. He pulled up behind the three-point arc, and let fly. With Jordan’s assassin’s cool. And true aim.
“He’s going to miss one one day. I know that,” Williams says. “But I’m not surprised. Great players, kids that have that kind of focus, who have that kind of ability, can make those kinds of plays.
“He’s got a lot of them left in his tank. I know that, and he knows that.”
