Nike Peach Jam: Day 2

The Kansas basketball staff had three coaches on hand at Nike Peach Jam for Day 2 of the first NCAA live period. Who did they see?

Day two of the live recruiting period is in the books, and Kansas had head coach Bill Self and assistants Norm Roberts and Kurtis Townsend in Augusta for the most of the day.

As we reported yesterday, they are following the every move of top targets Trae Young and Deandre Ayton. They’ve also followed 2017 wings Chaundee Brown and Troy Brown closely, and Coach Self has also been on hand for each game of the PSA Cardinals, who have a myriad of elite prospects in the program.

The staff would have gone to see Collin Sexton, had he been in action. Unfortunately, Sexton elected to take a few games off after returning from his trip to Spain with the USA U17 team. We hope Sexton might be in action today or tomorrow, but it’s unclear if he wants to play at all in the first live period.

Today, though, we’ll focus on who Coach Self and Coach Townsend have seen in the Peach Jam 16s event. The U16 event gets less focus from the media circus at Nike Peach Jam, but it’s where some big names have blown up in the past to become national names.

Rowan (RJ) Barrett, Jr.

Coach Self and Coach Townsend were present for both of U-Play Canada’s games, and it was undoubtedly to see Canada’s hottest prospect since Andrew Wiggins.

Barrett is a long, silky smooth lefty that does everything well for a 6’6″ guard. He can shoot it off the catch and off the dribble, and he looked quite comfortable as a mid-range shooter too.

He is athletic enough to dunk in traffic, but uses some craftiness to finish in the lane rather than trying to dunk everything.

As a defender, Barrett has good hands and quickness in guarding smaller guys. He shows good timing on blocks, too, when he actually gets beaten to the rim (which isn’t often).

Right now, Barrett is projecting to be one of the top 3-4 prospects in the 2019 class and will have Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke following his every move over the next few years. It’s way too early to say which team will be the favorite, but we have heard rumors in the gym that Kansas is in very deep here.

Related Story: Nike Peach Jam Day 1 Update

Andrew Nembhard

The agile 6’2″ point guard is the other half of the U-Play Canada backcourt, and Barrett’s teammate at Montverde Academy.

Nembhard is an excellent attacked off the bounce, and loves to play north-south from the top of the key. In the games we’ve seen, he’s shown he can be either a scorer or a facilitator on offense. He showed excellent vision off drives, setting up a lot of good looks for his teammates.

We should get another look at Nembhard today, and we fully expect Coach Self and Coach Townsend to be on hand again for the game. Nembhard is tracking to be a McDonald’s All-American level talent in the 2019 class, and like Barrett will have all of the blue-blood schools trying to sign him.

Next: Best Transfers Under Bill Self

Today is my last day on the road for Peach Jam, but I’ll still have plenty of recruiting updates through the rest of the live periods. We’ll have another big article tomorrow to wrap up our coverage, so keep an eye out for it!