Barrington Hargress showed why he has the potential to be a critical a drawing card.
At least thatap the hope for the Colorado men’s basketball team as the offseason officially begins. The Buffaloes’ season ended on Wednesday night, as a gritty effort from a shorthanded squad resulted in a 90-86 overtime loss against Oklahoma in the first round of the College Basketball Crown.
The offseason roster makeover began even before the Buffs left for Las Vegas. Leading scorer and freshman standout Isaiah Johnson, leading rebounder Bangot Dak, and versatile forward Sebastian Rancik already announced their intentions to hit the transfer portal, leaving the Buffs shorthanded in their first matchup against the Sooners in more than 15 years. The Buffs announced last week that Hargress intends to return to CU for his senior season.
When the transfer portal opens on Tuesday, head coach and Tad Boyle will seek reinforcements to fortify the Buffs’ front line and complement Hargress, who finished with a season-high 31 points against Oklahoma. Boyle said he believes the lure of playing with Hargress, who averaged 14.7 points and 4.5 assists while starting all 33 games, will be a draw for quality additions.
Hargress’ assist total tied Derrick White’s mark from 2016-17 for 13th among CU’s season leaders. His 15-for-16 night at the free throw line against Oklahoma marked the most made free throws by a CU player since Spencer Dinwiddie hit 15 against Texas Southern on Nov. 27, 2012. Hargress finished with CU’s season records for 3-point percentage (.481) and assist-to-turnover rate (3.61).
“Huge,” Boyle said. “The guy had a four-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio. Who wouldn’t want to play with a point guard like that? And a guy thatap going to be a senior, he’s got both feet in. Barrington’s going to be an integral part of us putting this team together. He’s a wonderful teammate. Great kid. Having him back is huge. Thatap going to help us.”
While Boyle cautioned there likely will be further departures among the non-Hargress players who suited up against Oklahoma, CU already landed new additions by getting commitments from two Australian recruits, forward Goc Malual and guard Alex Dickeson.
The Buffs carried 14 scholarship players this season, and as of Thursday morning stood at a projected 13 players lined up for the 2026-27 roster, the possible pending departures notwithstanding. In addition to the two Australian players, the Buffs also signed incoming freshman Rider Portela, a 6-foot-6 wing from Phoenix.
The loss of Dak and Rancik, combined with the graduation of center Elijah Malone, leaves the Buffs thin along the front line, although 7-foot-1 freshman Leonardo Van Elwyk could be in the mix after redshirting this year. The Buffs also will look to the transfer portal for experience, as among the current projected roster no player has exhausted more than one season of eligibility besides Hargress.
“Good core, good young, talented guys, is a great place to start,” Boyle said. “But we obviously are going to need help on the front line with Elijah graduating, Bangot leaving, Sebastian leaving. But look, we were one of the tallest teams in America this year. But we also were an atrocious rebounding team. Size doesn’t always equate to rebounding. We’ve got to become a better rebounding team.
“The reality is you’ve got to look to the transfer portal, and you’ve got to look overseas. Because overseas, you can get experienced guys. Even though they might not be experienced in college basketball, they might be experienced in who they’ve played with and the competition. So, we’ll see. But probably not the high school rout, unless we found a diamond in the rough that we felt like could come in and really impact our team. We need impact players.”
