Speculation swirled that R.J. Barrett would eventually end up in the class of 2018 since he burst onto the scene two years ago. On Monday, it became official.
Barrett's father, Rowan Barrett, confirmed to Rivals.com that the 6-foot-7 wing is now a member of the 2018 class.
A big-time athlete with a well-balanced and fundamentally sound game, Barrett put an exclamation point on his offseason when he led Canada to a gold medal in Fiba's U19 World Championship in July.
By making this move, Barrett drops from No. 1 in 2019 to No. 2 overall as power forward Marvin Bagley III continues to hold the top spot in 2018.
However, the stay at No. 2 is looking like it will be short-lived as Bagley appears to be next in line to make a class switch with a likely move to 2017.
Should the Bagley move occur, Barrett will immediately move to No. 1 and will be the heavy favorite to retain that spot when we do a full update to the 2018 rankings in late August. Should Bagley elect to remain in high school, there will be a pretty interesting debate about who deserves the top spot.
Barrett has never released an official list of schools though Arizona, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, UCLA, USC and many others are thought to be involved. According to his father, Barrett won't be looking to string anybody along and that he will soon announce the list of schools that he is pursuing.
For now, Barrett is focused on preparing for what will be his senior season and he's yet to lock in any official visits. With Barrett's move to 2018, Charles Bassey moves up from his No. 2 spot to No. 1 in 2019.
