What came as a shock to most in Big Blue land. Let me take that back. What came as a shock to most in the college basketball recruiting world was the commitment of Will Barton and his brother Antonio to Memphis yesterday. The duo from Baltimore is one of the few victories the Memphis program has had this offseason. First, they lost their coach to Kentucky. Next to go were recruits DeMarcus Cousins (Rivals 2nd ranked player) and Darnell Dodson. To make matters worst, Xavier Henry (another Memphis commit and Rivals 8th ranked player in 09)along with brother CJ fled to Kansas. Oh, and other top fifty prospect Nolan Dennis backed out of his LOI (letter of intent) in order to go to Baylor. See, I told you things were pretty bad. Memphis had established what was considered the top recruiting class for 09' and every piece of that class but one left for another institution. A JUCO transfer Will Coleman. Tough break for a team that was fresh off a championship game defeat, and then what was almost another run to the Final Four last season.
None-the-less the Tigers marched on, promoting former assistant coach Jeremy Pastner to head coach. Once everything seemed dulled out for next seasons hopes, the Tigers signed top 20 prospect Latavious Williams. A talented forward who is an athletic freak, however, whether he qualifies and passes the NCAA clearinghouse is another story. But just with the chance that Williams would qualify, he was the best news that Memphis had received all off-season. Until yesterday.
In a shocking decision the Barton brothers announced they would be headed to Memphis. Just a day before the vist a quote from the brothers godfather/advisor Roland Cox read as followed, "We're headed down to Memphis this weekend to visit,". "When we get back we will call Kentucky and set up a visit. We are going to look at those two situations and see what is best." All big time recruiting analysts had Kentucky as a virtual lock for the services of Will, and it was hard not to blame them. Even in first person interviews, analysis around the high school basketball recruiting circle came away thinking, this guys headed to Kentucky. Apparently the Memphis visit went better than expected.
“Me and my brother decided to choose Memphis because it was a great family atmosphere,” said Will Barton.
“We just went down there [to campus] and saw it for ourselves, man.”
Will Barton (The Baltimore native) happens to be one of the most sought after recruits in the class. The 6-6 Shooting Guard has a knack for scoring, and recently scored 38 points in a game against the team of fellow top ten recruit Harrison Barnes on the AAU circuit. Will is ranked 7th overall in the 2010 recruiting class according to Rivals.com. He also happens to be the number one shooting guard in the class, which made him a major target for John Calipari and a team looking to fill the shoes of Jodie Meeks. So as Kentucky fans were counting down the days until the announcement came for Will to choose Kentucky, he and family were weighing other options instead. Factoring into the mix is brother Antonio who also happens to be part of the 2010 class and is a three star point guard according to Rivals. Calipari and Kentucky was reluctant to offer Antonio a scholarship spot. After receiving numerous offers as a duo the Barton's were waiting for Kentucky and coach Calipari to do the same. That offer did not come, but a commitment did. So while the media and the common fan scramble to blame this as the reason for Kentucky's miss, there is just a little bit more to the story.
As Paul Harvey would say, here's the rest of the story.....
Late last week the Barton's took a vist to the Memphis campus, along with their mother and godfather Roland Cox. While most would think the timing could not get any worst for UM (under the siege of NCAA violation investigations), their new young coach found a way to call his own pitch and knock it out of the park. Coach Josh Pastner used the NCAA's recent investigation of the program to his favor. What many would consider a huge flaw, he turned into a great recruiting pitch, pinning all the blame on coach John Calipari and raising questions about what may happen if Barton were to end up at UK. Also thickening the case for Memphis is new assistant coach Glynn Cyprien who ironically had been coaching at Kentucky. Will had been a heavy UK lean long before John Calipari arrived, and his hiring only seemed to add the cherry to the top of what was thought to be a Will Barton/UK marriage. However, Will had formed an extremely close bond with coach Cyprien, so close that it may have been the deciding factor to go to Memphis. Barton almost committed to Kentucky while Glynn Cyprien was there, and Glynn seemed to have built a better relationship with Will Barton than any coach in the country.
“We had a great relationship with Coach [Glenn] Cyprien and Coach Pastner,” Will said.
I guess this holds true as Will Barton isn't the first or only thing that has been traded between Memphis and Kentucky this offseason.
