By SAM LANCE
ROCK HILL, S.C. — It’s been a summer to remember for class of 2027 prospect Martay Barnes. The 6-foot-2 guard out of The Academy of Central Florida and the Austin Rivers SE Elite AAU program, shined playing up on the 3SSB circuit this summer. And now, with the contact period open, he’s starting to hear from a plethora of college coaches.
Since June 15, Barnes has earned offers from Indiana, Kansas, Miami, NC State, Ole Miss, Providence and South Carolina to go along with previous offers from the likes of Cincinnati, Florida State, Mississippi State, South Florida and UCF. His play during live periods has also drawn the attention of schools like Baylor, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan and Virginia.
“It’s been wild honestly,” Barnes told ZAGSBLOG. “Since June 15, a lot of offers have been rolling in. My game has been changing, we’re winning a lot of games. It’s just a lot man. This summer was huge for me, especially with the offers I’ve been getting.”
With Austin Rivers, Barnes consistently performed and often initiated the offense. The guard has been known as a scorer for most of his career, but he really made strides in his playmaking this summer and gained experience playing the one. Across 10+ contests, Barnes averaged 14.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.2 steals. He shot 44.1% from the field and 46-of-131 (35.1%) from 3-point range.
“A lot of people know I can already score the ball, but coming out with 3-5 assists a game, its a lot,” Barnes said. “So changing my game, creating more shots for my teammates. Transforming my game a lot to get to an older stage to where I need to get to for college.”
So far in his recruitment process, Barnes hasn’t taken any official visits, but he’s tripped UCF unofficially. He plans to take some official visits this fall during football season.
“I can’t wait to see how the fans are for sure,” said Barnes of what he’s looking for in future visits. “I just can’t wait to see the fan bases. But I’ll most likely know more when I start taking more visits and stuff, seeing more what I want to see toward going to college.”
In Rock Hill, Barnes provided ZAGSBLOG with thoughts on some of the schools involved:
Florida State: “Florida State’s another one man. Coach [Michael] Fly and the whole coaching staff, everybody around there, it’s lovely man. They text almost every day. So that’s a big one for sure. Because it’s right around the corner, it’s in Florida right back at home. So it’s just a big one.”
Indiana: “It’s huge man. Hearing from Indiana, it’s one of the winningest programs in the country. Just hearing from them — and their fanbase is wild — so it’s insane.”
Kansas: “It’s a big one man. It’s a Blue Blood. Hearing from them is wild. I was amazed, especially getting the offer from them on the first call we talked. It was just amazing man.” Bill Self and Kurtis Townsend called Barnes to give him the offer.
Providence: “Providence is a huge one. Coach Kim English, he’s a good coach. He’s a great coach actually and really loves my game. He came out to the DMV live period, watched me play. He saw my attributes and things I can do on the court, and he really loved it and gave me the offer.” English was courtside in Rock Hill twice.
UCF: “It was good. That’s the hometown. That’s Orlando, right around the corner from where I stay. It was good just going there and seeing the coaches. The coaching staff is great. The players, the facility, everything they got there, I like it man. They let their guards rock out man. They let the team just play man.”
It’s still very early in Barnes’ recruitment process.
“All the schools I’ve been getting offers from has just been wild,” Barnes said. “But it just shows the works been paying off.”
Barnes is ranked the No. 37 overall prospect in the 2027 class by 247Sports.
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