This is what I know: Barnes notified only one school (UNC) ahead of time about the Skype thing; however, he was careful not to tell UNC that they were the only school being told to standby for the Skype call.

The moment Barnes mentioned Skype in the presser, the other finalists knew they were out b/c Barnes hadn’t said anything to them about Skype. Still, UNC had no idea until they heard Barnes say “Coach Roy Williams”

What role did the Titanic video play in Barnes’ decision???

I remember the debate between Bomani Jones and Adam Gold about how the video would portray life on the team at Duke. I think they may have kept the wrong host at 620AM. At the very least, AG owes BJ an apology.

1. THF, the folks over at DBR are deflated…some folks here have cut-and-pasted posts that indicate Dook fans were more sold on getting Irving than Barnes. That is simply innacurate. Without paying IC premium fees, DBR had been the only place where I could even get the slightest tidbits on Barnes (for the longest time…which stunk, because the facts were supplimented with Dookie Dribble). Having sifted through those posts and threads for nearly four months now (I LOVES my UNC basketball…it’s 365 days a year), I can tell you all that their fanbase is crushed. They are collectively doing what any fanbase would do, and that is rally around a theme to move forward. That them is to place all the chips on the next-best-thing, which is Irving. To be perfectly honest, they can have that kid. He wasn’t recruited by many schools, and his profile sky-rocketed when the big boys came calling. Do you think he just magically jumped from being Scout #12 PG to #5 by playing THAT much better than the other guards? Please, homes.

Not getting Harrison Barnes is such a defining moment for both Dook and UNC. I’m not going to over-sell this one, and I think it is fair to say that, up to this point, it is comperable to the recruitment of Grant Hill. Dean was invited to the Hills household for dinner, and to make a recruiting pitch. After dinner, Grant Hill excused himself to work on homework, while the Hills met with Dean in the living room. After a short discussion of academics, the Hills informed Dean that Grant was going to Dook. Dean’s answer was awesome”

“Had I known this, I could have had dinner with MY family.”

Which leads me to point #2.

2. Harrison Barnes did not notify all the schools of his decisiion. THF, you beat me to the punch. Had he notified any one coach, it would have been all over the internet…like THAT. I give him more credit for not revealing the information. The fact that Mike Krzyzewski had that big production in play is ON HIM. He’s a 65-year old man and he can handle himself, so let’s not throw our two tears in the bucket for him. As for the other coaches, they knew that UNC and Dook were the leaders, so they should be happy to have the exposure.

3. As far as the recruiting classes go, the Heels roster is loaded, pure and simple. Roy is thinking through the early departures and he is getting four and five-star recruits to re-fill the gaps.

Once and for all, we’re past Dook now. Our rivals are on the national stage, with Kentucky and Kansas. Giving the Dookies this much site space is habitual, I know…but it keeps them relevant. They simply are not as relevant these days. If their collective fan base are more excited about another year of Kyle Singler (which won’t happen) or 1-2 of Kyrie Irving over 1-2 of Harrison Barnes, then they are saying so out of a desperate need to shield the fact that Dook is a DISTANT second now.

They lost their most-prized recruit of the last ten years, and they lost him to UNC. They lost him after “recruiting him out of the womb” and with nearly every reputable scout/recruiting site saying he would end up in Durham. They lost him after Roy Williams put a sudden, hard-but-effective sell on the kid. Harrison Barnes liked what he heard. This is a defining moment. People like to say that recruits don’t pay to much attention to how certain issues effect other recruits decisions. Mark my words, this situation will be on the minds of a LOT of recruits for the next several years.

That’s all I’m saying. GO HEELS!!!

I guess I was looking at through the I don’t want that happening to our Tar Heels.

To Matta’s credit, he is dominating the state of Ohio, much like Dean used to own NC. Here is the list of 4 and 5-star players from OH that he has gotten since 2006:

Daequan Cook (5)
David Lighty (4)
Kosta Koufos (5)
Jon Diebler (4)
Dallas Lauderdale (4)
BJ Mullens (5)
William Buford (5)
Jared Sullinger (5)
Jordan Sibert (4)
Aaron Craft (4)

The state of Ohio has has historically turned out great basketball talent and Matta has taken his cues from the football team and made locking up the in-state talent a priority. In someways, the devotion that Ohioans have to the football team probably helps him in keeping these players.

Agreed. It’s one thing to get them, it’s another thing to keep them. Roy does both as well as anyone.

But again, who’s fault is that? You didn’t see a bunch of cheerleaders and PR people around Roy, did you? It was the team, and it wasn’t even all of them. Quite frankly, you’ll have a hard time convincing me that the real reason the team was there was anything other than to help Roy use Skype. It’s not like Barnes called each school and said no before ending at UNC, which, IMO, would have been unfair, and it’s not like ESPNU had cameras at each of the schools.

To me, this is no different than what happens in March when schools on the bubble gather in large throngs to see if they will be selected to the NCAA tourney. The coaches and schools are gambling on a chance to gain a little more positive publicity at the risk that their heartbreak will be aired publicly.