ShareThisCHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina freshman forward Harrison Barnes can envision the reception he will receive from the Cameron Crazies when he takes the court at Duke on Wednesday night.
"I think they're going to be excited to see me," the preseason All-America said, grinning. "I think they will."
Then he paused.
"Not in a positive light."
Unlike the fall of 2009, when security guards in the arena ordered Duke fans to hand over signs welcoming the then-No. 1 prospect -- the signs were a potential recruiting violation -- posters with more caustic messages are likely being prepared for the player who passed on Duke's scholarship offer to play instead for the rival Tar Heels.
"He'll have a special welcome from the Crazies," promised Samuel Davis, a Duke sophomore from Port Jefferson, N.Y., who serves as a line monitor for Krzyzewskiville, the area outside Cameron Indoor Stadium where students camp for basketball tickets.
"I'm thinking about a Skype taunt," Duke freshman Will Woodhouse of Raleigh said, referring to the Internet video-messaging service that Barnes used to announce his decision to attend UNC.
Added Steven Blaser, another Duke freshman from Armonk, N.Y.: "We're just excited about having him here so we can take him down and give him (garbage)."
The back-and-forth pull for Barnes, who is averaging 13.3 points and 5.5 rebounds for the No. 20 Tar Heels, was one of the hottest recruiting battles between the Tobacco Road rivals in recent memory. Duke was the early favorite, and Kansas, UCLA, Oklahoma and Iowa State were in the mix, but the Tar Heels became instant frontrunners when Barnes made his official visit in September 2009 for UNC's 100th anniversary alumni game. At that game, Barnes sat about 15 feet from Michael Jordan.
Both schools coveted the athletic, sharpshooting wing so much that the next month UNC coach Roy Williams and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made in-home visits to Ames, Iowa, on the same night.
"I had close relationships with both coaches," Barnes said recently. "It was difficult and good at the same time. I got an opportunity to spend time with Coach K, and I got an opportunity to spend time with Coach Williams. That was very influential into making my decision."
And, he says, he has never second-guessed it -- even when he struggled with consistency, shot selection and the occasional rash of turnovers early in the season.
"Just developing into the system, it was a little different than I was used to," Barnes said. "Because in high school, I could do whatever I wanted -- I could create whatever shot I wanted. And I had the ball in my hands the majority of the time.
"At the college level, you have to play off the ball; you have to learn how to make a move in a small amount of space with only one or two dribbles, rather than unlimited dribbles and no shot clock. So those are the things that go into that, and the more games you play, the more you can rely on your instincts."
As a result of honing those instincts, the 6-foot-8 starter makes his first trip as a Tar Heel to Cameron Indoor Stadium playing the best college basketball of his young career.
Over his past three games, he is averaging 22.6 points and has emerged as the go-to shot-maker at the end of close contests. He credits knowing where to find teammates on the court, and teammates knowing where to find him.
"He has a maturity," Krzyzewski said. "Also, he'll put the work in. He knows he's good, and he'll prepare to be good. And when you have talent, knowledge and preparation, it's going to work out. He's a big-time player, and he gets what he works for. He works really hard. He's always been a tireless worker."
He plans to continue to show that work ethic Wednesday, when the Tar Heels try to win their sixth straight and overtake the No. 5 Blue Devils for first place in the ACC standings. Having witnessed the rivalry game in Chapel Hill and in Durham, Barnes knows the game will be intense.
"It's a little more intimate setting, because they can only seat 9,000," he said. "You've got to be mentally prepared for it, more than physically prepared."
Especially when it comes to the Crazies, who will indeed be glad to see him.
"We'll not have to say any cheers," said Michael Jaffe, a junior from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., "for him to know he should have come here."
(Charlotte Observer staff writer Ken Tysiac contributed to this story.)
(Contact Robbi Pickeral at robbi.pickerel(at)newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
