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Alex Barcello recovered the ball after Atiki Ally Atiki’s shot was blocked. The senior BYU guard retreated to the best wing and took one arduous dribble baseline earlier than crossing over and leaving a defender within the proverbial mud.
As Barcello stepped again behind the 3-point line and rose as much as shoot, the Cougars bench rose in unison. Because the ball swished in, the gang erupted in unison.
Barcello and three different seniors performed their final BYU house recreation final Saturday in what turned a blowout win over the Pepperdine Waves heading into the West Coast Convention Match. It was the final time followers would see Barcello’s prolific taking pictures in Provo. The final time they’d see him thwomp on the Marriott court docket whereas diving for a free ball or ending on the rim in site visitors.
However when Barcello’s school basketball profession is formally over, will it’s the beginning of his identify being talked about in the identical breath as some BYU’s all-time biggest guards?
“Simply watching all these years, I type of take little bits and items of the most effective guards and also you type of make an Alex Barcello out of that,” former Cougars participant Mark Durrant advised The Salt Lake Tribune. “He’ll go down, in my e book, as among the best guards to ever play at BYU.”
Durrant has been watching BYU males’s basketball groups for greater than 40 years. His brother, Devin, performed for the Cougars within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s. Mark Durrant performed from 1989-95, and has spent the final 25 years on the sidelines as a coloration commentator for BYU Radio.
Meaning Durrant has seen the likes of Danny Ainge, Nate Name, Tyler and T.J. Haws, Chase Fischer and Jimmer Fredette. Ask anybody who has historic data about Cougars males’s basketball, and people names will inevitably be talked about among the many program’s biggest guards.
Barcello is in his third and remaining 12 months at BYU. He didn’t get as a lot time because the others to climb as far up the file books in classes akin to complete factors, wins, 3-point subject objectives made.
However the file e book will present Barcello as one in every of solely three BYU gamers to make no less than 9 3-pointers in a single recreation. It’ll present him among the many gamers with greater than 1,000 factors in his profession. He’ll be among the many prime 20 in 3-point subject objectives made. He’ll doubtless be within the prime 5 in free throw proportion.
The file e book already reveals him as holding the present file for 3-point proportion (48.1%) and efficient subject objective proportion (61.5%). He additionally has essentially the most 3-pointers in a recreation with no miss (seven).
However when some take into consideration Barcello’s legacy at BYU, they have a look at whether or not he has a signature second on a giant stage that immortalized him within the eyes of followers and media.
“What he doesn’t have going for him proper now’s an NCAA Match run and even an NIT-type of Ultimate 4 look,” ESPN960 analyst Benjamin Criddle mentioned. “He doesn’t have perhaps an iconic recreation by which he’s been part of that he was the lead protagonist. That’s the knock towards him.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brigham Younger Cougars ahead Gideon George (5) and Brigham Younger Cougars guard Alex Barcello (13) stroll off the court docket after the win because the Utah Utes host BYU, NCAA basketball in Salt Lake Metropolis on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021.
Barcello’s first season with the workforce was a COVID-19-shortened one, and he solely acquired to play in a single NCAA Match recreation final 12 months — a loss to UCLA. So the pattern measurement for his postseason profession is small in the intervening time.
Be that as it might, not everybody thinks Barcello wants an immortalizing second on a giant stage to cement himself into BYU lore.
“He’s had game-winning moments and game-stealing moments,” BYU Radio host Greg Wrubell mentioned. “The scale of the stage could fluctuate, however his influence on the workforce and its capacity to win has been fixed.”
Heading into the WCC Match, Barcello had a 65-24 general file. He began all 89 video games by which he appeared. His taking pictures splits have been 48.8% from the sphere, 44.4% from the 3-point line and 87.3% from the free throw line — ever so near the 50-40-90 effectivity that solely the purest shooters ever obtain.
Durrant mentioned Barcello’s toughness reminds him of Ainge, his taking pictures capacity reminds him of Fredette and his management reminds him of T.J. Haws.
Former BYU assistant coach Tim LaComb mentioned Barcello’s tenacity reminds of Jackson Emery, who he coached alongside Fredette. He additionally believes Barcello has a “warrior mentality” like Lee Commard did.
In LaComb’s thoughts, the best BYU gamers are remembered for a way far they took their groups. With BYU firmly on the bubble of the NCAA Match image, it’s unclear if Barcello will get that likelihood. However LaComb is assured.
“I nonetheless consider he’s acquired one thing left to say,” LaComb mentioned. “And usually the best of all, they go away a mark that no person can actually query, and that’s by way of what their groups are in a position to do.”
Nonetheless, many consider Barcello is already among the many prime 10 guards in BYU historical past. Criddle believes he could even be within the prime 5 of the final 25 years.
Coach Mark Pope admitted he isn’t too accustomed to all who got here earlier than Barcello. However he mentioned lately that anybody can be hard-pressed to search out one other participant who transferred to the college, linked with the fan base and grew as an individual as a lot as Barcello did within the final three years.
“In some sense, he’s already written a storybook ending,” Pope mentioned.
Barcello himself doesn’t appear all that eager about his place among the many BYU greats. He needs to legacy to be about how he impacted profitable.
“I simply need to be often called a man that gave it his all each time he stepped out on the ground,” Barcello mentioned. “A man who was prepared to do the whole lot that the workforce wanted — whether or not that was scoring, rebounding, locking up one in every of their greatest offensive gamers, whether or not that’s simply speaking to guys on the court docket and main them.”
Barcello’s stepback 3-pointer final Saturday sparked a run that allowed the Cougars to separate from Pepperdine en path to a 75-59 victory. Amid the uproarious celebrations, he tapped on his left wrist the place a watch is perhaps.
And with regards to Barcello solidifying his BYU legacy, there may nonetheless be time.