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WARR ACRES, Okla. — For the first two minutes, Xavier Henry said nothing.

Henry, the No. 7 recruit in the country according to rivals.com, entered the gymnasium at Putnam City High School to make his college announcement and there was silence. Xavier refused to start the press conference until he could get his older brother, C.J. Henry, on the phone.

Xavier wanted C.J., who’s currently finishing spring classes at Memphis, to be part of the announcement that the brothers would attend Kansas next season.

“Me and my brother, there’s no separating us. I’d do anything for my brother,” Xavier said. “That’s why I was going to go to college with him even if I wasn’t as much into it as Kansas.”

Six months ago in this same gym, Xavier picked Memphis over Kansas, his other finalist at the time.

It shocked some. Putnam City basketball coach A.D. Burtschi had predicted Xavier would commit to Kansas. Even Xavier’s parents — former Kansas basketball players Carl and Barbara Henry — knew he preferred Kansas.

“Xavier’s heart was with Kansas when he chose Memphis,” Barbara Henry, Xavier and C.J.’s mother, said. “It was just the brother — he wanted the opportunity to play with his brother for once in his life.”

Now, Xavier will have the chance to fulfill both of his dreams — playing with his brother and playing at Kansas. And he can do it right away.

The NCAA has cleared C.J. Henry, who walked on at Memphis last year after spending three years in minor league baseball, to play immediately next season without sitting out. It’s all come full circle for C.J., who committed to Kansas out of high school in 2005 before being drafted by the New York Yankees in the MLB Entry Draft.

“It’s going to be a great experience,” C.J. said. “It’s going to be fun.”

The Henrys chose Kansas over Kentucky and coach John Calipari, whose decision to leave Memphis re-opened the Henrys’ recruitment. That was nearly a month ago.

Since then, the Henrys went through what Barbara called a “very stressful” process of trying to decide between Kansas and Kentucky. Both Calipari and Kansas coach Bill Self tried to sway Xavier and C.J. to their schools.

But when it came down to it, Xavier could not imagine passing up the chance to play for the team he grew up watching. Xavier and C.J. picked Kansas Tuesday during a phone conversation. Afterwards, Xavier called Self and told him the news.

“He asked me something like, 'Are you positively sure this is where you are coming?'" Xavier said.

Yes, Xavier assured Self with a laugh. After one of the longest and most up-and-down recruitments of Self’s tenure at Kansas, Henry was sure.

Sure he wanted to play at Allen Fieldhouse, where he has attended Late Night in the Phog since he was a child. Sure he wanted to carry on his parents’ legacy. Sure he wanted to join Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich to form a nucleus that will make Kansas the favorite to win the 2010 National Championship.

“They say they were going to be close to preseason No. 1 next year without me,” Xavier said. “Now, they say with me, we’re preseason No. 1 for sure. I just want to play on the best team next year and have a chance to win the national championship.”

Friday night, Xavier will attend prom at Putnam City High. He said he was looking forward to “chilling” for the last month of high school before he headed to Lawrence for the summer.

The Henrys have made no definitive plans for when they will arrive on campus. But Xavier said he would wait until C.J. came home to make the move. They’ll arrive in Kansas together.

“I’ve always dreamed of going to Kansas,” Xavier said. “I’ve always wanted to, but I took a step back for my brother at Memphis.”

— — Edited by Andrew Wiebe

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