Three-star Corona Centennial point guard Sedrick Barefield was a big land for SMU.

He was the first member of SMU's 2015 class, choosing to commit to the Mustangs in February even though he held offers from the likes of Connecticut, Baylor, UNLV, Creighton and Missouri and was receiving interest from Florida, Oklahoma and Michigan.

He was the first land for the Mustangs out of talent-rich Southern California. He is a two-time Player of the Year in the Big VIII league and two-time all-state selection who took a young Centennial squad to the state championship game as a junior.

He was exactly what Larry Brown was looking for in the one spot: a true point guard who can finish at the rim, knock down threes consistently and create for his teammates.

But before he got his offer, Barefield, who signed his Letter of Intent on Wednesday, did not know a whole lot about SMU.

"Well, all I really knew was that Larry Brown was the coach and Emmnauel (Mudiay) had recently committed there. I had no idea where they were located, I had no idea the campus was as nice as it was so I didn't really know much about it. But the opportunity to be coached by coach Brown and to learn from him every single day…" Barefield told the HillTopics before trailing off for a moment. "You know, that's special."

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Barefield remembers exactly when he first met the Hall of Fame coach.

"It was after a high school game, we played Roosevelt High School and I played well in that game and we won. After the game K.T (Turner, the SMU assistant who was the point man in Barefield's recruitment) brought me up to (Brown)," Barefield said. "It was kind of, like, shocking because you've seen him on television coaching Allen Iverson, coaching Reggie Miller. And then to finally be able to have a conversation with him and he's possibly your future coach? It's kind of surreal."

Barefield got his offer from SMU in December and two months later he decided to take his official visit to the Hilltop.

"I just knew the opportunity was there to get coached by (Brown) and it was really important to show them that I was as interested in them as they were in me," Barefield said.

Barefield would not leave campus before giving his pledge to Brown to come play basketball for the SMU Mustangs.

"I had started to develop a good relationship with the coaches and that had a lot to do with it because the other schools that were recruiting me, I hadn't felt the same connection that I felt with them," Barefield said. "When I saw how nice the campus was and the city of Dallas, it just felt like it was supposed to be and my mom felt the same. She kept giving me this look like, this might be the place for you."

The good news for SMU would not last, however. In July 2014 five-star Emmanuel Mudiay decided to go play professionally in China for a year and Matt McQuaid, the other member of the 2015 class, decommitted from SMU before pledging to Michigan State.

With all the disappointments for SMU on the recruiting front at that point, many wondered if Barefield too would reopen his commitment.

"Not really," Barefield said when asked if his confidence in SMU was ever shaken. "The opportunity to be coached by (Brown) was still there."

This was not surprising to people that knew Barefield. He is one of few high school recruits who stuck with the same high school and the same AAU program (the Compton Magic) for all four years of high school.

"Loyalty…that's everything to me. My parents put that in me. I've never been the type of person to walk away from people who really stuck with me and really been there for me. So through July (SMU) told me that they still wanted me, they still were 100 percent with me all the way. That opportunity to be coached by coach Brown was still there and to have a good career in Dallas so I stuck with it."

July was a rough month for Barefield on a personal level as well. The point guard and the Compton Magic struggled during live period, which culminated with getting eliminated in the group stages of the adidas Super 64 in Las Vegas.

"That was probably my lowest moment of my basketball career. Struggling in Vegas, not playing well in July. I just had to learn from it," Barefield said. "The biggest thing is just playing every game like it's my last. I played so many games where I took it for granted, or I wasn't focused or locked in all the way. And then I learned the balance of scoring. There were games where I didn't shoot and games where I shot too much so I just really try to be aggressive and make plays for myself and for my teammates now."

But Barefield still showed flashes during the summer. He was the MVP of the Pangos All-American Camp 30-60 game in June and was invited to participate at the NPBA Top-100 camp and at an adidas Nations tournament.

But then again skill has never been the problem for Barefield. According to long-time Centennial coach Josh Giles, Barefield was talented as a freshman but missed something else.

"He was incredibly skilled. He's always had the skillset. The first time I saw him he was just so skilled with the ball and there weren't a lot of things on the basketball court he couldn't do," Giles remembered. "When I first saw him as a freshman, he just wasn't very mature. He was really young, he was only 14. He had all the skillsets but he didn't understand how to play the game; how to push the ball, when to pull back. That was all still very foreign to him."

Giles thinks that the biggest jump for Barefield is between the end of his junior season and the beginning of this fall camp.

"From when we lost in the state championship game to now, he has made his biggest jump as a basketball player. To me, it's just between his ears. That's his biggest improvement," Giles said. "I'm not one that throws out compliments all the time, I'm pretty hard on the guys. I'm especially hard on point guards so I've been especially hard on Sedrick since day one. (If you compare) his maturity level now to when he was a freshman, there's no comparison. It's not the same person."

"This time last year it was like, gosh, I just want Sedrick to figure it out. He'll be so good if he just figures it out. He was already good. He was the MVP of our league as a sophomore. He was already good but he could be great. It was just a matter of him figuring it out and I feel like he has."

Giles is not the only person close to the player to see the change. Etop Udo-Ema, the director of the Compton Magic, has noticed the difference in Barefield while watching him at fall practices.

@SedrickB_2 over here going HAM- Etop Udo-Ema (@EtopUdoEma) September 22, 2014

Barefield sees the improvement in himself but is trying to remain humble as he prepares for his last season of high school basketball.

"I've been playing a lot better and the team's looking better so hopefully we'll be better for the season," Barefield said. "I've been trying to get to the gym at six o'clock in the morning and after practice, after weights and after school I've been going straight to the gym so I'm just trying to go to the gym a lot."

While Barefield was wrapped up long ago by the SMU coaching staff, they still have been keeping an eye on their future point guard.

Assistants Turner, Ulric Maligi and Tim Jankovich all flew out separately to watch Barefield during the fall live period. Those visits were just the warm ups for the big one: An in-home visit from Brown and Turner.

"It went really good. We just talked about the school and they told me I would love it there. They talked about recruiting some bigs. They're trying to get two more bigs for this class but they're happy about the other guys that they got," Barefield said.

The coaches also spoke to Barefield about how they see him fitting in next to the other two current members of the 2015 class, guards Shake Milton and Jarrey Foster.

"They're saying they want bigs to go along with us but if they didn't they had no problem playing a lot of guards. I remember K.T. telling me we'd run a lot of pick and rolls so we're all going to be able to fit in and make the most out of the system and hopefully get wins," Barefield said.

The real treat of the visit was getting to watch SMU film with Brown.

"He mainly stressed the defensive end. We didn't talk much about the offense because they are a lot of changes that are going to be made and I can adjust my game. The main thing he said to look at was the defensive principles they use and some of the mistakes the players were making. He said to watch that."

All that remains for the young guard to take in about the SMU experience? A game at Moody Coliseum. Barefield will rectify that in February when he flies out to Dallas for the SMU-Connecticut game, a visit Barefield is excited for.

"I definitely thinks it's going to be special. I've never been out there so I'm really excited to see them play UConn," Barefield said.

But not nearly as excited as he is to one day play for SMU and its legendary coach. Considering the player that is on the way, SMU fans should be excited too.