Canada’s R.J. Barrett reclassifies, will enter college in 2018

R.J Barrett, gold medal winner at the FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup joined the Jeff Blair Show to discuss the last 72 hours for him, how beating the U.S.A was huge and what’s in store for the young Canadian.

R.J. Barrett, the 17 year-old Canadian hoops sensation, announced on Monday that he will officially reclassify and jump ahead one year in order to begin his freshman college season in the fall of 2018.

The Mississauga, Ont., native made the announcement on his USA Today blog:

Well, after thinking things over with my family for a while I have officially decided to reclassify to the 2018 class.

Really, it’s been a thought of mine for the last year, but I wanted to wait and see how the season would go and how school would go and when everything went well it became more and more real so I made the decision to go ahead and do it.

I’m right on track to graduate in 2018 and academically everything is great.

Barrett was the No. 1-ranked player in the class of 2019, but a dominant stretch of basketball that included leading Canada to its first ever gold medal at the FIBA Under-19 championships last month in Cairo, Egypt, where he won MVP despite being one of the younger players in the tournament, has further boosted his stock.

 
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The six-foot-seven (and growing) forward averaged more than 20 points and eight rebounds in the tourney, but really turned heads with an unstoppable 38-point, 13-rebound performance in the semifinals versus Team USA:

Barrett, who along with forward Marvin Bagley Jr. will be in the running for the No. 1 ranking in the class of 2018, will likely have his pick of schools. In his announcement he listed 14 of the top programs in the NCAA who have already expressed interest, including Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, UCLA, and Michigan State.

Barrett follows in the tracks of fellow Canadian phenom Andrew Wiggins, who also reclassified ahead of his junior high school year. Barrett figures to be in the running for the top pick of the 2019 NBA Draft, where he could potentially join Wiggins and Anthony Bennett to become the third Canadian drafted first overall in the last seven years.

Here’s a taste of what Barrett brings to the court:

Behind Barrett, Canada’s basketball future appears bright as ever.

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