Oh how a few months have changed things. As recently as August, University of Memphis’ highly touted freshman recruit Will Barton was sitting on the sidelines, after the NCAA Clearinghouse ruled him academically ineligible for the upcoming season. Now that he is newly cleared to participate in team activities, the player given the nickname “The Thrill” has made a bold prediction…………..that the ’10-’11 Memphis Tigers will win the National Title.
The high scoring Barton is the gem of Coach Josh Pastner’s #3 rated recruiting class in the nation, which also features difference-making newcomers Jelan Kendrick, Chris Crawford, Tarik Black, and Joe Jackson. He finished his high school career as the #1 rated shooting guard in the entire 2010 Class and is the key cog in helping Pastner bring the Memphis program back to national prominence.
Is Barton really that out of line? Well yeah, but what would you expect an exhuberant, wide-eyed, 19 year old who’s never played a minute of college ball to say? You have to love his optimism. I would be a little disappointed if he would have said something negative like questioning how a team in the midst of a major rebuilding project, which missed the NCAA Tournament last season, could be the favorite to win it all. I don’t see it as any bulletin board material, but rather a boisterous young man who can’t wait to play in his first NCAA game.
There’s no doubting that Pastner learned how to real in the big fish like Barton from his former bosses John Calipari, when with the Tigers and Arizona coaching legend Lute Olson. Behind the scenes as an assistant coach, Pastner played a major part in both program’s success. Now as the successor to Calipari at Memphis, he is well on his way to forging his own path towards NCAA coaching stardom.
As for how the Tigers will fare this season as a #14 ranked Preseason Top 25 selection, there’s no reason why they can’t once again dominate Conference USA while being a Top 10 team all season long. While the jury is out on whether this year’s Memphis squad can be as good as Calipari’s freshman laden Elite Eight squad led by John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins was last year, we’ll know more once the season begins. What we do know is that Barton and his highly touted freshman recruits do have some help in the form of junior Wesley Witherspoon(12.5 ppg, 4.6 rebs, and 1.4 stls) and high flying former JUCO transfer Will Coleman(7.4 ppg, 6.2 rebs, and 2.1 blks) who both will be looked upon to provide leadership to such a young and talented group.
When it comes to Barton’s bold proclamation of a National Title, we’ll all agree it’s a little premature, but who would have predicted at the beginning of last season that Butler would make a legendary run at the crown, only to come up one shot short of winning it all?
Check out a video featuring 3 of Pastner’s highly touted incoming recruits(Jackson, Crawford, and Barton) in HS action:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
