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Shaq Barber is on the way to the South Carolina State hoops program, and while the Georgia Class 4-AAAA player has yet to log a single collegiate minute we already know he can do something that no other guard on the SCSU roster could a season ago -- fly like a helicopter. The kid is a bonafide contender for the mythical MEAC Slam Dunk Championship.

“He’s just a tremendous athlete,” South Carolina State head coach Tim Carter said.

Tremendous athlete? Come on, coach, quit being modest. Let’s let the Bulldog out the bag on this one. Shaq Barber has springs in his legs.

The film doesn’t lie

In the days of YouTube sensations, Shaq Barber is underrated.

Go figure. When the dumbest things catch fire online overnight and find their way, good or bad, into the mainstream media, Barber’s lone YouTube video has just 3,340 views. It’s a short clip, just 13 seconds long, of him out on the court at Griffin High School. There’s another video floating around the Web as well. In fact, it can be found on the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Web site. Just head over there and search prep dunks, and you will find a clip of Barber throwing the rock down. In the AJC video, Barber dunks double-fisted, turns and looks into the camera with his team standing behind him.

“Shaq Barber. Senior. Griffin High School,” he says as the camera zooms in to reveal a slight snarl on his face. “A buck 80. Six Feet. Got my team with me. Let’s go ahead and do this thing.”

Just in case that last part slipped by you, young Mr. Barber is 6-0, 180 pounds. So, he’s not the biggest kid in the gym, but when it comes to skywalking, it should be noted that the YouTube video and the AJC video have a very interesting thing in common. In both videos, Barber isn’t just running up to the basket, jumping and dunking. No. That would be easy.

When Shaq Barber dunks he jumps over things. In the YouTube video, with the stands at Griffin High School filled with cheering onlookers, Barber takes off and leaps over a full rack of basketballs before tomahawking the ball down through the net with authority. The camera cuts away from Barber as the students break into wild celebration. When it cuts back to him, there he is, walking back toward the 3-point line, calmly, wiping his face off with his practice jersey.

Just 3,340 views? You have to be kidding me.

In the AJC video, with his teammates cheering him on, Barber foregoes the ball rack, jumps over two teammates and catches an alley-oop before unleashing a two-handed Shaq attack on the rim. “They didn’t tell me about the dunk contest until two days before the (AJC) came,” Barber said Thursday. “Everything that I did was kind of off the top of my head.

“It took me a couple of times to get the alley down pat and get the right angle and all that. We did a couple more. I did a regular windmill down the lane, and I did another one where I put a sticker on the backboard and dunked at the same time.”

He can dunk like he does now because of years of leg work. He also credits genes. His father, Charles Barber, played basketball in high school. The first dunk came as a freshman off an alley-oop. There have been countless others.

“I think one of the best dunks I had in a game was last season when I caught an alley-opp pass off the backboard and dunked it,” he said. “I think that was against Forest Park.

“My junior year, I had a dunk over like two people at the same time.”

The life of a Dunk-A-Holic

Barber said things are going good in Griffin.

He’s happy to report that his grades are up to par. He’s running track, taking part in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays as well as the long jump.

Last year, he watched Tim Beckham come out of Griffin High and get drafted first overall in the MLB Amateur Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“I knew him pretty well,” Barber said of Beckham. “We even went to the same middle school, and he played a year of basketball. He has a little shot on him.”

Barber, who will compete in an All-Star game Sunday on the campus of Savannah State, is well spoken. Tim Carter calls him a “great kid.” His Myspace proclaims him SCSU Bound. ESPN.com proclaims that a coup for Carter.

“Personally, it was just like ... they were really interested in me,” Barber said. “(SCSU) came and seen me play over the summer. They said they really needed a point guard, and I wanted to go somewhere and have a chance to start as a freshman. That’s one of the main reasons why I chose them.”

The kid idolizes Dwyane Wade.

“I think my game is more like him,” he said. “I’m a quick jump shot shooter. I like to take them off the dribble and shoot the mid-range jumper. I can shoot the 3.”

Barber is set to graduate from Griffin May 29, and he plans to study Business Management at S.C. State. He’s visited the campus, took in a game against Winston-Salem State and liked what he saw. He’s ready to take flight in Smith-Hammond-Middleton.

“I consider it a good system,” Barber said of Carter’s style. “I’m ready to bring what I can to the table. I’m ready to help them go farther in the (MEAC) next year.”

Orangeburg-bound and ready to hoop it up. Something tells me we have yet to see Shaq’s best dunk.

T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553. Check out his blog, Welcome to Linderland, at www.thetandd.com.

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