Harrison Barnes will be fine.
But the preseason All-America team won’t ever be the same because it has Barnes — the first freshman to be selected since voting started before the 1986-87 season — and he shouldn’t have made it.
The temptation was easy, especially after how year after year since the one-and-done rule went into effect after the 2005 NBA Draft, superstars like John Wall have used college as a way station between high school and the pros. Barnes will be no different, but it’s clear handing him one of the college game’s highest accolades so soon was a bust while some of the best college players — including those who won’t be the top overall pick in next June’s draft — were overlooked.
Shelvin Mack (21.3 ppg) is fresh off helping Butler get to the NCAA title game, Marcus Morris (20.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg) is pacing Kansas, and Kalin Lucas (11.5 ppg, 6.5 apg) is certain to carry Michigan State deep into March.
Barnes may yet blossom, and North Carolina may yet figure out how to play as a team, but the fabulous freshman forward got exposed in Puerto Rico. He’s averaging just 12.5 ppg and shot 4-for-24 in the team’s last two games, including an 0-for-12 performance against Minnesota.
Perhaps it’s just an odd year for college rookies. Big 12 preseason rookie of the year Josh Selby can’t even play yet — the NCAA’s making him sit out nine games — and the Big East’s fabulous freshman Fab Melo fouled out of his first two games.
