Barrington Hargress committed to the Colorado men’s basketball program only two months ago. He has been on campus only a few weeks.
Yet Hargress has been hearing about the Buffaloes’ program for years. And he witnessed how two of his closest friends thrived at CU before Hargress became one of the most prolific scorers in the nation at UC Riverside.
A native of Inglewood, Calif., Hargress is old friends with former CU standout point guard KJ Simpson, and he often shared car rides to and from youth basketball games with former Buffs forward Jabari Walker. Both players eventually heard their names called in the NBA Draft, and Hargress took notice.
When a coaching change at UC Riverside, along with a desire to challenge himself at a higher level of college basketball, combined to steer Hargress to the transfer portal, the tales spun by his Colorado Buffalo friends weren’t far from his mind.
“It felt like home and everything I was looking for,” Hargress said. “I’ve had a bunch of friends that have come from this program. KJ Simpson is somebody I’ve grown up with. I have stories of driving Jabari Walker home from when we were about 13-years old. Having two of my close friends come to the program and thrive in it and grow, it was really eye-opening. It felt like it was a move that I could make and that would be right for my career.
“I loved everything I was able to do at Riverside. And I loved what it prepared me for. I do think as I kept on growing, I wanted to test myself against the best of the best. Which is the Big 12.”
Hargress likely will have the keys to the offense handed to him immediately, as the Buffs’ other potential candidates along the perimeter rotation all are long on talent but extremely thin on experience.
The Buffs are welcoming a five-player freshman class this summer that includes four wings. CU has two returning guards in second-year players Felix Kossaras and Andrew Crawford, but Kossaras averaged just 10.8 minutes in 29 games, all but one off the bench, while Crawford took a redshirt season.
Hargress should give the Buffs an immediate spark offensively, as his scoring average of 20.8 points last season led the Big West Conference and ranked in a tie for 15th nationally. Yet Hargress might make the most important impact with his play-making ability.
As the Buffs struggled to a 14-21 record last season, they ranked last in Big 12 games in turnovers (14.8 per game) and average turnover margin (minus-4.30) while finishing just 10th in assists per game (12.9). In 68 games over two seasons at Riverside, Hargress averaged 4.3 assists while posting an assist-to-turnover rate of 2.53. That’s nearly twice the total posted by the Buffs’ leader in assists last season, Julian Hammond III (1.30).
As a redshirt freshman in 2023-24 at Riverside, Hargress averaged 4.5 assists with an assist-to-turnover rate of 3.14.
“That’s definitely what I pride myself on,” Hargress said. “People are going to look at the stats and see my 20 points (per game), but one of the main things that I took pride in my freshman year was my assist-to-turnover ratio. That’s kind of what I’ve come here to do. I see that talent. I see the weapons. The scoring load is still going to be there, but it’s going to be a lot easier for those assists to come and still do what I was able to do at Riverside with more threats around me.”
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