Colorado junior guard Barrington Hargress has emerged as a key contributor for the Buffaloes men’s basketball team this season. Hargress is averaging 13.6 points, 4.6 assists, and one steal per game. He leads the team in assists and shares the top spot in field goal percentage at 56 percent, while ranking second in both scoring and steals.
A native of Inglewood, California, Hargress has demonstrated strong ball protection skills. His assist-to-turnover ratio stands at 3.0, placing him eighth in the Big 12 Conference and among the nation’s top 50 players for this statistic throughout the season.
These numbers are consistent with his previous performance at UC Riverside, where he played 68 games over two seasons and averaged 16.4 points and 4.3 assists with a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. While his scoring average has decreased since transferring to Colorado, expectations were different for his role on the new team compared to his time at UC Riverside. Last season at UC Riverside, Hargress led the Big West Conference and was ninth nationally in scoring with an average of 20.2 points per game.
At Colorado, coaches sought an all-around point guard who could contribute both by scoring when necessary and by involving teammates in plays. So far this season, Hargress has scored in double figures in 13 out of 17 games but has only led the Buffaloes in scoring twice. He has led the team in assists ten times and recorded seven games with at least five assists as well as eight games with no more than one turnover.
One area where Hargress has shown marked improvement is shooting efficiency. At UC Riverside, he shot 43 percent from the field and made 32.3 percent of his three-point attempts over two seasons. After focusing on improving his shot during the offseason, he is now shooting 56 percent from the field and 52.5 percent from beyond the arc at Colorado—leading all guards in the Big 12 Conference and ranking tenth nationally.
Hargress is also attempting fewer shots per game compared to his time at UC Riverside but is making nearly as many field goals per contest—5.5 this year versus 6.1 previously.
Head coach Tad Boyle commented on Hargress’s contributions: “It’s his work ethic,” said Boyle earlier in the season. “Number one is shot selection. Number two, he hasn’t taken bad shots. I think if you wanted to put his performance really all year, in one word, it would be efficient. He’s obviously been a great assist to turnover ratio guy for us all year long. He’s been a rock solid defender, so he does a lot of things to help this team. I talked to Barrington earlier in the year, he’s going to have to figure out, night in and night out, what does this team need from him? Some nights it might be distributing the ball and getting other guys involved. Some nights it’s going to be, ‘We need you to score the ball.’ It’s a model of consistency.”
The coaching staff appears satisfied with how Hargress has adapted into an efficient playmaker within their system.
