The Kansas Jayhawks are reeling in what 247Sports touts as the nation’s No. 3 recruiting class. This is a class that involves the likes of the nation’s No. 1 player, small forward Tyran Stokes, No. 20 player, point guard Taylen Kinney, and top-100 players in power forward Davion Adkins and wing Trent Perry.
Ranked 124th in the class is shooting guard Luke Barnett. Barnett has long been tipped as an elite shooter. When Barnett announced his commitment to the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas head coach Bill Self called Barnett “the best shooter we’ve recruited since Gradey Dick,” which is tall praise. However, with the excitement bubbling around Kinney and Stokes, it would have been easy to have had Barnett drop off your radar.
Self seems over the moon with the sharpshooter
When speaking with the media earlier this week, Self spoke on Barnett’s offseason development, saying, “But maybe the nicest surprise we've had so far has been Luke Barnett. He hadn't been good; he's been terrific. So, that's been a pleasant surprise
Barnett’s junior season at Mater Dei ended with California’s No. 13-ranked player averaging 21 points, 3,7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.4 steals.
“…We knew Luke could really shoot, but Luke, you know, it's great to be able to really shoot, but you still got to be in the game to make shots. Luke's plenty good enough to be the game. So that adds to your shooting right there”
Last season, the Kansas Jayhawks averaged the nation’s 161st-best offense that averaged 75.1 points per game. During the 2025-26 campaign, the Jayhawks notched a 34.6% three-point rate; this places them 139th in the country.
Just five players from last season’s roster tallied a three-point rate above 30%. Those include Melvin Council Jr (30.8%), Jamari McDowell (34.9%), Elmarko Jackson (37.2%), Darryn Peterson (38.2%) and Tre White, who ended his only season with KU with a 40.3% rate.
Of course, none of those players are set to return to the roster next season as of publishing, which means an already paltry three-point corps is now completely empty.
What could Barnett’s role be next season?
In your cookie-cutter offense, that uses each position as originally labeled, Barnett could easily be projected as the team’s second-choice shooting guard off the bench behind just Kohl Rosario.
However, next season’s roster presents a different picture. With Stokes tipped to be a ball-handler, this opens up the opportunity for Self to enlist a combo guard setup. If this were to occur, then rather than Taylen Kinney and Leroy Blyden Jr. fighting for minutes at point, Kinney would likely play point with Blyden sliding as the team’s shooting guard. Early projections point to this rather than a more transitional setup. If this is ultimately the case, then Barnett would be the team’s third-choice shooting guard, limiting his minutes even more.
While there is still a lot of offseason left to play, it should be noted that when Self originally prompted Barnett, it was out of nowhere; no question had been asked about the freshman’s development at that point, which is a massive positive for Barnett.
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