Harrison Barnes is reportedly registering for summer classes at UNC.
The news that Barnes was returning started to surface when Scott Van Pelt of ESPN hinted the North Carolina forward was leaning toward a return to school for his sophomore season.
isportsweb.com is reporting that sources are pointing to his return, as well. Meanwhile, NBAdraft.net has removed Harrison Barnes from their 2011 mock draft board.
Now, scacchoops.com is jumping on-board. A quick props to them:
Point zero of the Twitter craze pointing to Barnes returning is from Des Moines, Iowa sports radio host Marty Tirrell, who broke the news last year that Barnes would spurn presumed leader Duke for Carolina. Way back on March 29th, Tirrell tweeted that Barnes would return, and followed that up on April 3 that an announcement would be made the following Tuesday, which was a week ago today. He later said the Barnes announcement would be made on Monday, and yet we wait. To his credit, Tirrell stands by his pronouncement, saying he “will mow Coach Williams lawn by hand if I’m wrong on Harrison Barnes”.
We, on the other hand are still holding off judgement. No other sources are willing to speak “on the record” about the matter. Those who do speak are offering conflicting reports.
For example one unsubstantiated rumor flying around is that a few NBA GMs have mentioned that Barnes is on the NBA Draft list.
Barnes, who was named a preseason All-American before even playing a game for the Tar Heels, was projected as a Top-5 pick in the upcoming NBA draft.
After a relatively slow start to his freshman season, he finished the year averaging 15.7 points and 5.8 rebounds and while helping UNC to the Elite Eight before losing to Kentucky.
The rumors of Barnes’ return combined with the news of of John Henson and Tyler Zeller also returning to school instantly makes North Carolina the favorites going into the 2011-2012 season.
Before you decided to write up a story entitled “Harrison Barnes returning to UNC,” did you bother to check any sources beyond SVP’s tweet, which says, “I’m hearing Harrison Barnes with stay @ UNC?” Even if it turns out to be true, your story seems incredibly premature. It’s this kind of “journalism” that’s destroying the credibility of the media. You don’t check facts, you just see what’s trending on Twitter and write it up as news. I don’t mean to heap criticism on you personally, as I’ve seen many other writers employ the same tactics, but come on. I recognize that any investigation at this point would probably get you a lot of “no comments” from Barnes, Roy Williams, and other UNC officials, but if that’s the case you just wait until you have something more credible than a tweet about a rumor. That said, I really hope Harrison Barnes comes back for another year.
Before you decided to write up a story entitled “Harrison Barnes returning to UNC,” did you bother to check any sources beyond SVP’s tweet, which says, “I’m hearing Harrison Barnes with stay @ UNC?” Even if it turns out to be true, your story seems incredibly premature. It’s this kind of “journalism” that’s destroying the credibility of the media. You don’t check facts, you just see what’s trending on Twitter and write it up as news. I don’t mean to heap criticism on you personally, as I’ve seen many other writers employ the same tactics, but come on. I recognize that any investigation at this point would probably get you a lot of “no comments” from Barnes, Roy Williams, and other UNC officials, but if that’s the case you just wait until you have something more credible than a tweet about a rumor. That said, I really hope Harrison Barnes comes back for another year.
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