California high school basketball's top 2026 shooter commits to Kansas; Mater Dei's Luke Barnett

From one blue blood to another, sharpshooter Luke Barnett is headed from Mater Dei to Kansas.

Mater Dei shooting guard Luke Barnett announced his commitment to Kansas Friday afternoon. / Mike Bouffard

One of California's best high school basketball shooters is headed to play for Bill Self at Kansas.

Mater Dei's Luke Barnett, a 4-star shooting guard at 6-foot-3, announced his commitment to the Jayhawks Friday afternoon. Barnett is one of the nation's purest shooters and has deep range capability.

"Going on the visit, seeing the culture at Kansas, the basketball history — I feel like it's a great spot where I can go and get better, and really improve," Barnett said via CBS Sports' live stream on Youtube.

Barnett averaged 21 points per game as a junior for California blue blood program Mater Dei in 31 games. He made 94 threes. As a sophomore he made 113 threes.

The sharpshooting guard picked Kansas over Miami, TCU and UNLV.

When asked what Jayhawks fans are getting in his talents, Barnett said: "(Kansas) is getting someone that can come in and space the floor, hit shots, play hard all the time, someone that's tough and wants to win."

Barnett isn't 'just a shooter' but a formidable playmaker, too. He has a good handle and surprising athletic ability for his size and skillset. Barnett is capable of plays at and above the rim if he has enough runway.

247Sports has Barnett ranked No. 113 nationally and the No. 21-ranked shooting guard for the 2026 class. Director of scouting Adam Finkelstein says this about the Mater Dei standout:

"Barnett is a shooting specialist. He has deep range and a quick, compact release that he hops into. He took over 70% of his shots from behind the arc in EYBL play and while he made 37% of his total threes, he knocked down a whopping 47% of his unguarded catch-and-shoot attempts. He has extreme gravity as a floor-spacer and understands how to leverage it by utilizing the deep corner, instinctively finding open space around the arc, and just generally understanding spacing and offensive structure."

"While he’s not a true creator or dynamic handler, he’s economical with each bounce and a willing ball-mover who can keep the dominos falling with relatively quick decisions. He’s also an extremely efficient finisher (71% at the rim in EYBL) who finds easy points by sprinting the floor in transition and seizing opportunities to decisively attack bad close-outs."

"Physically, he has solid positional size, some strength, and enough sneaky bounce to finish above the rim in the open floor. Defensively, he can be flat-footed guarding the ball and struggle to get around screens at times, but he closes out hard, is disciplined contesting shots, and covers ground pretty well when he’s forced to scramble. He’s never going to be the most gifted defender, and undoubtedly has to improve, but the overlap of his motor and IQ should prevent him from being too much of a liability."

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