Instead, he called his coach at 6a.m. on a Monday, just a few days after his freshman basketball season at Ames High in Iowa ended with a loss in the district semifinals.

It was spring break, and coach Vance Downs had told his players to take the week off to let their bodies recover after a long season. Downs repeated those instructions when Barnes asked to be let into the weight room at 6 in the morning.

“His response to me was, ‘Coach, we aren't going to win championships taking weeks off,'” Downs said.

Two years later, that combination of determination and maturity has propelled Barnes to the top of the Class of 2010 in scout.com's rankings. He is a top recruiting target of both North Carolina – which he will visit unofficially next week – and Duke.

A 6-foot-7 small forward with a 6-11 wingspan, Barnes has a rare set of priorities to match his outstanding athletic ability. He is a talented musician who plays cello and saxophone and participated in the marching band until the end of his sophomore year.

He is a member of a group called DECA that provides training in marketing and management at his high school. During his senior year, he will sing in the school choir, and he might try to win a state championship in the high jump during the spring after he attempts to help Ames defend its basketball state title.

On Wednesday mornings, he participates in a Bible study group he helped form at school.

Barnes is so busy that he hasn't gotten around to completing the course work necessary to get his driver's license even though he has been of legal age for almost 13 months. He walks to school, asks for rides from his mother or his friends, and sometimes uses public transportation.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘Is this kid real?' And he is,” said his mother Shirley Barnes, who is watching Barnes play at the National Basketball Players Association Camp at the University of Virginia this week. “I wish I could clone him.”

Barnes grabbed a defensive rebound on Court1 at John Paul Jones Arena on Thursday, lowered his shoulder and gracefully drove downcourt.

He hesitated for a moment at the 3-point arc on the left wing, then darted toward the basket and gently laid the ball in.

All-Star Sports analyst Bob Gibbons compares Barnes' skill set to former Duke standout Grant Hill's, although Barnes is an inch or 2 shorter.

Although Barnes is getting over a bout with a stomach virus, he still managed to tie for his team scoring lead with 14 points in his opening game at the NBPA camp, which features most of nation's top-rated high school players.

Barnes said academics will play a “very large part” in his college decision. He is considering 11 schools.

“I want a school that has a very good business program that can set me up with internships and connections down the road for my days after basketball,” he said.

On the court, Barnes has developed into a player whom Downs said is virtually unstoppable in the lane on the high school level, and he is a gifted enough perimeter shooter that he made 43 percent of his 3-point attempts last season.

He is projected as a wing but handles the ball well enough that he has been working some at point guard this summer. And he was strong enough to average 8.4 rebounds to go along with his 20 points a game as a junior on a team that finished 26-0.

He handles his own interviews and discussions with college coaches, because his mother believes it's good training for later in life.

In high school, at least, he can guard or play all five positions. And even at 6a.m. on spring break, he's doing the right thing.

“He can score in a variety of ways,” Gibbons said. “He's team oriented. He's unselfish. He seems to be a low-maintenance kid, with not a high ego. … He seems to be a quality young man. That's what I like about him.”

By Ken Tysiac