By ADAM ZAGORIA
Scottie Barnes, the 6-foot-8 small forward from Montverde (FL) Academy, is focusing on a group of four schools
Barnes is considering Florida State, Kentucky, Miami and Oregon as his “primary four” schools, he told Yahoo Sports. Barnes has visited Oregon and Florida State officially the last two weekends.
“Those are my primary four,” he told Yahoo.
The No. 3 -ranked small forward in the Class of 2020 per 247Sports.com Barnes is expected to visit Miami (Oct. 18) and also hopes to visit Kentucky.
“I am probably going to do Kentucky and Miami visits pretty soon,” he said.
He visited Oregon the same weekend as Prolific Prep (CA) guard Jalen Green, and called it his “dream school.”
“It has always been my dream school since I was a kid,” he said. “Once you get older though, you just have to stop that dream school stuff and face reality, because you have to know what best fits you and gets you in the best situation and helps you develop as a player.”
Florida State is also a strong player in his recruitment.
“I think it went great,” he said of the visit. “I really have a good relationship with Coach Ham (Leonard Hamilton) and the rest of the coaches there. I saw the system that they play and they got a lot of bigs with good guards. I could see they really shoot the ball and their practices, they are really high energy.”
Miami is very close to his home.
“They are basically an hour away from my house,” he said. “(Jim) Larranaga is there, he is a good guy, him and (Chris) Caputo, I hear from all the time and I text hem a lot. They really show a lot of interest in me, but I know going there, it would be very special to play right by my home and my parents could be at all of my games, so that would be really special and also be different from other players to go there.
Kentucky has already landed several guards and wings in 2020 in Brandon Boston, Terrence Clarke and Cam Fletcher, but Barnes is still considering them.
“Everyone knows about Kentucky and what they do there with their players,” he said. “They really help people to be one-and-done, which is what I really want to do.”
Barnes could pull the trigger soon.
“I am probably going to commit sometime in November, or even late October,” he said.
Photo: Matt Prehm
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