Former BYU guard Alex Barcello is currently playing on the Toronto Raptors’ summer league team as he pursues a professional basketball career.
Certainly, the Cougars will miss the 6-foot-2 guard from Arizona this season.
Barcello finished his time at BYU ranked No. 25 on the program’s all-time scoring list. He started every game — 94 — during three seasons under head coach Mark Pope.
Barcello averaged 16.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game as a senior, and shot 45.1% from the field and 42.1% from 3-point range, which tied for 12th nationally.
Last January, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said, “Alex Barcello is the best shooter in the country. He’s the best shooter.”
In February at Pepperdine, Barcello poured in a career-high 33 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the floor, was 9 of 10 on 3-point attempts, and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line.
Barcello’s leadership and diligence will be difficult to replace.
“He played every single game during coach Pope’s first three years here at BYU,” said assistant coach Nick Robinson. “So Alex brought a certain mentality, a certain work ethic, a certain leadership style. Clearly, as Cougar Nation knows, he helped us win a lot of games. He played in a lot of key, important moments.”
Still, the way Robinson sees it, Barcello will still make an impact on this year’s team.
“This roster without Alex Barcello is going to have different guys, in their own way, step up to fill some of those different areas and different roles,” he said. “We anticipate that the upperclassmen, in their own way, will need to fill leadership roles. We need to fill roles on the court. But overall, coach Pope has a great culture established of working and getting better, which Alex clearly contributed to in many ways. His legacy will move forward with the guys that are on the roster into this next year.”
Before senior night in February, Pope recalled how quickly Barcello assimilated into the program after transferring from the University of Arizona in 2019.
“He came in his first year with a group that had been here and he fit in seamlessly. He became well-loved from the first day. After that first year, he spent the whole summer trying to grow himself into a leader of this locker room and of this team,” he said. “He earned that space last year, both on the court and in the locker room.
“He really augmented those leadership roles over the last year. He’s been everything to BYU basketball. He’s the guy that ties these first three years together, for sure, with elite-level basketball play on the court and great leadership in the locker room.
“If you had to identify BYU basketball right now and you had to choose just one player that tied these past three years together, there’s nobody that won’t say Alex Barcello. That’s pretty impressive.”
