Barnett returns home and commits to Flashes

Marquis Barnett will return home to play his final season of college basketball.  The 6-4, 205 pound guard from Brunswick High School, committed to Rob Senderoff and the Flashes Wednesday.

Barnett played the previous three seasons of college basketball at Presbyterian College of the Big South Conference.  He spent the 2023-2024 season averaging 16.4 points per game (good for 7th in the league), 4.5 rebounds per game and 2.5 assists for the Blue Hose, who went 14-19 overall and 6-10 in league.  He also impacted the game defensively, with his ability to defend multiple positions, accumulating 1.9 steals per game and 0.9 blocks.   

Barnett earned Big South Freshman Team honors in 2021-2022.    

“Marquis is a really physical guard who has improved every year offensively,” Rob Senderoff said in a release by the athletic department.  “He comes with a defensive mindset that can guard multiple positions. Marquis will help us in every aspect of the game.”

A native of Saginaw, Michigan, Barnett played his high school basketball at tradition-rich Brunswick High School, under the legendary head coach Joe Mackey.   “Marquis is a gifted athlete who makes everyone around him better. I’ve never coached a more versatile player at both ends of the floor. Presbyterian is getting a great player and even better young man”, Mackey said at the time of Barnett’s commitment to Presbyterian.   

As a senior, Barnett averaged a school single season record 24.2 points per game, while also breaking the record for field goals made in a season as well as points in a single season with 581.  Barnett was named to the Division I All-Ohio Second Team, as well as First Team All-Conference and First Team All-District.  Barnett isn’t the only Brunswick Blue Devil putting the blue and gold on next year, as Journey Hildebrand joins the Flashes for Todd Starkey’s women’s program. 

Barnett is another proven, known commodity at the mid-major level.  Barnett gives Rob Senderoff another multidimensional wing with size, in a similar mold to Morgan Safford.  The Flashes are stockpiling physical guards who are more than willing to defend.  

Personnel wise, the Flashes have a chance to be elite defensively next year with the likes of Mike Bekelja, Safford and now Barnett, to go along with rim protectors in the back end like Cli’Ron Hornbeak and Rico Gillespie.  Last year Kent struggled at times defending big, physical wings who could post it.  Barnett also gives the Flashes another thing that they lacked last season, a guy who can draw fouls.  Barnett shot 154 free throws last year, almost five a game.