Arizona Marvelous Ideas: Arizona basketball recruiting: R.J. Barrett reclassifies to 2018

The Canadian phenom says Arizona is one of the schools recruiting him the most

Canadian phenom and five-star prospect R.J. Barrett has reclassified to the 2018 recruiting class, he revealed Monday.

“Really, it’s been a thought of mine for the last year, but I wanted to wait and see how the season would go and how school would go and when everything went well it became more and more real so I made the decision to go ahead and do it,” Barrett wrote in his personal blog.

“I can’t say that there was one thing that tipped my decision to reclassify; but it was more a collective decision based on the whole year. My family and I feel like this will be beneficial for me because I’m ready to move up and to be in college a year earlier.”

After the move, the 6-foot-6 forward could become the top player in the 2018 class if Marvin Bagley III reclassifies to 2017, which 247Sports reports is “likely.”

Barrett, previously ranked No. 1 in the 2019 class, wrote that the Arizona Wildcats are among the teams recruiting him the most, along with Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon, Texas and UCLA.

It was reported earlier in July that Arizona is among the leaders for Barrett.

Barrett wrote that his reclassification won’t change his recruitment that much, but he will take his official visits sooner.

“I haven’t set anything up yet for sure with visits, but we’ll get to that,” he wrote.

On July 8, Barrett had 38 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists for Team Canada as it handed the USA Under-19 team its first loss since 2011.