R.J. Barrett arrived at Montverde Academy in the fall of 2015 to little fanfare. Such is life when you’re a freshman showing up at a place that annually contends for a national championship and churns out future NBA talent.

December 7 came, and the Eagles played another high school super power at the time, Huntington Prep (W.V.), on ESPN2. Twitter was abuzz, most people learning for the first time who Barrett was and how talented he was at such a young age. At a minimum, he came from good genes, his father being Rowan Barrett Sr., a former St. John’s guard and currently the general manager of Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team program.

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Was he overhyped? I remember trying to unpack that issue back then.

At the time, I co-hosted a high school/college hoops podcast for SNY with another hoops junkie, Adam Zagoria. Two days after Barrett was introduced to the nation, Zagoria and I had Montverde head coach Kevin Boyle on as a guest.

Boyle has produced five top-3 picks since 2011, including No. 1 overall picks in 2011 (Kyrie Irving) and 2016 (Ben Simmons). Barrett is a mortal lock to be Boyle’s sixth top-3 pick, potentially to the Knicks at No. 3.

Less than four years ago, seven games into Barrett’s career, Boyle already seemed to have a firm grasp on what he was looking at.

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"You could argue that he's our first or second-best player,” Boyle stated bluntly. “Third-best player at worst and I didn't start him until two games ago,"

At the time, I remember thinking that was outlandish given Barrett’s age, and the obvious fact we were talking about Montverde, but Boyle’s credentials mean you have to take what he says at face value.

Two weeks later, in the highest-level game Barrett had played to date, he went for 31 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists in an 83-82 loss to Chino Hills (Calif.) and the Ball brothers in a City of Palms Classic quarterfinal. That Chino Hills team, with Lonzo Ball at the wheel, finished 35-0 and steamrolled most everyone on its way to California’s open division state championship, not to mention a USA TODAY Super 25 No. 1 ranking.

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Apparently, yes, Boyle knew what he was talking about.

Barrett of course blossomed into the No. 1 high school player in the country in the Class of 2018, reclassifying up one year from the 2019 class, then playing his one year at Duke. Still, my standout memory of Barrett came late in his freshman year.

After Montverde finished its season at Dick’s Nationals, Barrett played in the now-defunct international game at the Jordan Brand Classic at Barclays Center. The week of the game, Nike officials held a media day at the HSS Training Center, aka the Nets practice facility, in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.

The players worked out and then requested players, including Barrett, were ushered into an interview room. There were pleasantries, a few softball questions, then one reporter decided it was time to get down to brass tacks.

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“It’s still very early, but which schools are showing you the most love right now?”

“Ask my dad, I have no idea.”

You see, Barrett wasn’t making a joke, or being rude to a reporter, he was being honest. The freshman genuinely didn’t know much, if anything, about his early recruitment. The schools were calling his father, and his father didn’t feel the need to burden his son with any of that information yet. This anecdote brings us back to another Boyle gem from the podcast interview.

"R.J. Barrett is a kid that could probably be one or two years in college and out," Boyle said. “We haven't gotten anything official, but I would think he could pretty much go where he wanted at this point in this stage of his development."

That statement, as it turns out, was prophetic.

Will Barrett’s presumed selection by the Knicks in three weeks also stand up? Stay tuned.

Josh Newman is currently the beat reporter for Rutgers University sports. He's a native of Commack, New York, on the north shore of Long Island, and is almost entirely free of his New York accent. Contact him at jnewman4@gannettnj.com