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Jun 29, 2025

CU Buffs hope Barrington Hargress is answer to struggles | CU Buffs | denvergazette.com

BOULDER — When in doubt, go to Southern California. That’s been one of Tad Boyle’s key recruiting strategies over the last 15 years as the coach of Colorado basketball. It started early in his tenure

BOULDER — When in doubt, go to Southern California.

That’s been one of Tad Boyle’s key recruiting strategies over the last 15 years as the coach of Colorado basketball. It started early in his tenure with the likes of Spencer Dinwiddie, Askia Booker and Xavier Johnson.

It continued throughout the 2010s with the likes of Tyler Bey and Evan Battey.

Recently, Los Angeles area natives like KJ Simpson and Jabari Walker starred for the Buffaloes before reaching the NBA.

Desperate for a scoring punch and an offensive hub after a disappointing first season back in the Big 12, in which CU finished dead last with a 3-17 conference record and with the league’s third-worst offense, Boyle went back to one of the places in the country he and his staff know best and found arguably one of the more underrated transfers in the country in Barrington Hargress out of UC Riverside.

CU fans only need to see one clip from Hargress’ standout sophomore season: a buzzer beater from half-court to force overtime against Colorado State at Moby Arena last November, a game Hargress and the Highlanders wound up winning.

“I was a true Buff already once I hit that shot,” Hargress told The Denver Gazette with a laugh this week.

On campus for a few weeks now and on the court with his teammates, Hargress is hard to take your eyes off of. Even at just over 6 feet tall, Hargress finds a way to make plays. He weaves in and out of taller defenders for layups, uses his quickness to create separation for jump shots, and often sees passes that no one else on the court does.

It’s everything the CU coaches thought they were getting — and then some.

“Barrington’s gonna be a key part of this team — a critical part of this team,” Boyle said. “He’s got experience, he can score the ball, he’s a good decision maker, he’s really coachable. The thing I love about Barrington is you tell him something, he looks you in the eye, he nods his head, he understands and he wants to get better.

Hargress already feels like he’s improved his game since arriving in Boulder, but the player he was last season is already exactly what the Buffs have been missing since Simpson — someone Hargress remembers battling against growing up — left for the NBA.

The Inglewood, Calif., native was a first team All-Big West performer for UC Riverside, ranking top 10 in the country in scoring at just over 20 points per game. But Hargress’ impact goes well beyond scoring.

If you look at players in big roles, very few were more efficient playmakers last season than Hargress. In fact, only six players in the country with usage ratings over 30 also had an offensive rating over 110, an assist rate over 25 and a turnover rate under 15.

The first name on that list is a big one, Duke’s Cooper Flagg and the recent No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. The other five were some of the top mid-major players in the country: UC San Diego’s Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, North Dakota State’s Jacksen Moni, Weber State’s Blaise Threatt, Navy’s Austin Benigni and Hargress.

“He can make plays,” Boyle said. “He can score the ball at the end of the shot clock for us, he can make guys around him better, and that’s the biggest thing. Good players make themselves better and great players make their teammates better, and he’s got a chance to be a great player.

“He’s our engine right now.”

The chance to make plays for his teammates is the first thing Hargress mentions when he asks about how he fits with the Buffs. He talks about Sebastian Rancik, the Slovakian forward coming off a promising freshman season who is a good shooter on the perimeter and an adept cutter going to the rim. He talks about Bangot Dak, one of the best lob threats in the Big 12 hopeful. He talks about Elijah Malone, the veteran big man who creates mismatches in the post and should benefit well from a second year at the Division-I level.

Just like plenty of L.A. hoopers before him, Hargress feels right at home in Boulder.

“This is 1,000% the best fit for me,” Hargress said. “I feel it every time I step on the floor, any workout I do, everything feels like I’m getting better and feels like this is where I want to be. It’s been really cool having guys that are very open, a good coaching staff that’s just showing me around and taking me in.”