John Wall, Harrison Barnes, and how Bomani Jones found himself in the orbit of their recruitments
John Wall and Harrison Barnes bookended 2009 with fascinating recruiting sagas, and Bomani Jones was in the middle of it all.
To say the recruitments of Raleigh's own John Wall and Harrison Barnes out of Ames, Iowa in 2009 had massive ripple effects for Duke, North Carolina, NC State and other college basketball programs would be an understatement. Bomani Jones, who was hosting a local radio show in the Triangle before going national with ESPN and HBO, found himself in the middle of it all. He essentially became a one-man recruiting news source before Wall committed to Kentucky and upped his media profile. However, Jones learned a valuable lesson in how the recruiting news sausage is made thanks to Duke and UNC influencers jockeying for information over where Barnes might land later that year. Jones joined 99.9FM The Fan's Joe Ovies to discuss how each story played out, and how his experience in the Triangle helped shape his unique perspective on national discussions regarding the Blue Devils, Tar Heels, and college football at large.
