I covered Kimmani Barrett during his tenure at Paterson (N.J.) Catholic and I broke the news of his commitment to La Salle.
He was a tremendous high school player and a nice, soft-spoken kid. He was part of a pioneering recruiting class for Dr. John Giannini that tried to turn things around at the Philly school.
Now his college career is over.
The 6-foot-5 Barrett will have surgery this week because of a fractured bone in his right foot.
“Kimmani Barrett has a fracture in his foot and he’s probably out for the year,” Giannini said Monday by phone.
Barrett, a Paterson, N.J., native, was averaging 13.3 points per game in 15 starts and became the 47th Explorer to reach 1,000 points versus Oklahoma State. He currently has 1,057 career points.
“He brought La Salle back to respectability and is on track to have his degree,” Giannini said. “He’s accomplished everything that we wanted to academically and as a team member. It’s just a shame that the second half of his senior year isn’t going to be what we hoped.”
The other piece of bad news for La Salle is that fellow senior Ruben Guillandeaux, a 6-6 guard, may be finished as well.
Guillandeaux, a Brooklyn native who played for Kevin Boyle at St. Patrick, has been out since the fourth game of the season with a stress fracture.
“There’s a small possibility he could return this year,” Giannini said. “He would be eligible for a medical redshirt.”
Giannini had hoped that his quartet of four-year seniors, Barrett, Guillandeaux, Rodney Green and Yves Mekongo would combine with 6-9 stud freshman Aaric Murray to lead the Explorers on a big year.
They were picked fourth in the Atlantic 10 by the coaches.
But with Barrett and Guillandeaux done, the Explorers (10-9) simply aren’t the team Giannini had hoped they would be.
“We had four battled-tested, productive, good A-10 players,” Giannini said. “You add Aaric Murray and the expectations are tremendous.
“Unfortunately since the fourth game of the season we never had those four together.”
(Photo courtesy La Salle Athletics)
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