College Basketball Transfer Portal: Colorado Buffaloes Host Four-Star Guard On Visit

Coach Tad Boyle has some talent to replace this offseason as five Colorado Buffaloes scholarship players have entered the men's college basketball transfer portal so far this offseason, including three guards.

With at least three scholarship spots to fill, Colorado hosted UC Riverside transfer guard Barrington Hargress on a visit earlier this weekend, according to BuffStampede's Oliver Hayes. Hargress is a four-star transfer and the first portal player to visit Boulder this offseason.

A 6-foot, 195-pound sophomore from Northridge, California, Hargress is also scheduled to visit Georgia Tech and Seton Hall.

Hargress is coming off two productive seasons with the Highlanders. After redshirting in 2022-23, he averaged 12.6 points, 4.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game in 2023-24 and was named the Big West Conference Freshman of the Year. Hargress was even better this past season, leading the Big West in scoring with 20.2 points per game on 44.4% shooting. His 686 total points scored also marked a UC Riverside program record.

Playing against higher-level competition often brought out the best in Hargress during his sophomore season at UC Riverside. During nonconference play, he scored 20 points against Oregon, 16 against BYU, 31 in a win over Colorado State and 17 at UNLV. Hargress later dropped a season-high 40 points against UC San Diego, which reached the NCAA Tournament.

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After losing Julian Hammond III to graduation and Javon Ruffin and RJ Smith to the transfer portal, Colorado would benefit from adding an experienced guard from the transfer portal. Felix Kossaras and Andrew Crawford are Colorado's lone returning guards, but there is excitement around incoming freshmen guards Josiah Sanders, Jalin Holland and Isaiah Johnson.

Boyle recently told BuffZone's Pat Rooney that he'll be shopping for a transfer guard with scoring ability, and Hargress certainly fits that bill.

“A guard that can score and create his own shot is probably the first thing," Boyle told BuffZone. "The portal is open until April 22. Assuming everybody else is coming back, you’re recruiting a point guard who can score the ball and distribute the ball. And then maybe the best available player you can get."

Looking at the bigger picture, Colorado's expected rotation for next season remains murky. Forwards Bangot Dak and Sebastian Rancik are pieces to build around, but besides those two, Boyle needs others to step up following a 14-win season.

“We’ve got to put together a rotation for next year,” Boyle told BuffZone. “The rotation this year was 11 guys, which is too many. But the reason it was 11 guys is we didn’t have a lot of separation between those 11 guys. Ideally, you want a rotation of seven, eight, probably a maximum nine. Just because we lost a couple guys out of an 11-man rotation does not mean we have to replace all of them."