Barnes heads UNC’s ’14 class

With a press conference in Ames, Iowa, and an announcement via Skype, Roy Williams and North Carolina completed a major recruiting victory on Friday’s signing day.

Harrison Barnes, ESPNU’s No. 1 recruit in the high school class of 2010, inked his letter of intent with North Carolina.

Barnes held a press conference in the Ames High School gym to announce his decision, saying that he would Skype the coach for whom he intended to play.

Barnes pulled up Williams and the rest of UNC’s team in North Carolina’s player lounge. The team took a break from practice to watch with Williams.

“You have a good feeling when they start talking about the Skype and setting it up, but you know they could have been doing that for every school,” Williams said.

“But no, when he said, ‘I’m going to go over and Skype the coach,’ and when his face showed up on our computer, it was a pretty good feeling.”

His was the third letter of intent UNC received Friday, as the Tar Heels pulled in an early front-runner for the top recruiting class.

Barnes joined two other top-20 recruits.

Kendall Marshall is No. 19 in ESPNU’s top 100, and would bolster a UNC roster with only one true point guard.

Reggie Bullock is a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from Kinston, and the No. 13 recruit in ESPNU’s top 100.

“This is certainly a really, really good class with three quality kids,” Williams said.

“They’re all going to be really good for our program. There’s no question about it.”

Those two alone fill two of UNC’s main needs — shooting and ball handling depth — but the addition of Barnes certainly bolstered the class. Barnes generated a tremendous amount of hype as he chose UNC instead of Kansas, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Duke and UCLA.

“He’s a tremendous scorer; he’s a tremendous basketball player,” said Williams, who said he recruited Barnes harder than any player he’s ever recruited.

“He may be 6-8, and he’s a perimeter player. He can really shoot. He can put the ball on the floor. He’s got the total package.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.