PHOENIX-Wednesday, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced that BYU men’s basketball is part of the field of teams for the third annual Jerry Colangelo Classic.
This is a premier college basketball showcase hosted at Talking Stick Resort Arena December 19.
This one-day quadruple header features Gonzaga-Texas Tech (a CBS broadcast), Arizona State-BYU, San Francisco-Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona-San Diego.
The Cougars finished the 2019-20 season with a 24-8 record and were No. 18 in The Associated Press poll and No. 16 in the USA Today Coaches poll.
Second-year head coach Mark Pope (24-8, .750 at BYU; 101-64, .612 as a Division I head coach) set the school record for wins in a season for a first-year head coach.
Pope returns senior guard Alex Barcello (9.3 points, 3.1 rebounds per game in 2019-20) and junior Kolby Lee (5 points, 2.4 rebounds per game in 2019-20) as starters from last season’s squad.
Other key contributors from last season who return include junior forward Gavin Baxter (1.3 points, 1.6 rebounds per game in 2019-20) and junior guard Connor Harding (6.1 points, 6.1 rebounds per game in 2019-20).
The Cougars also boat three Division I transfers who are immediately eligible this season. They include former Purdue center, Dutch national Matt Haarms (7.5 points, 4.4 rebounds per game for his career with the Boilermakers), and former Utah Valley center Richard Harward (5.1 points, 4 rebounds per game for his career with the Wolverines) and former Utah Valley forward Wyatt Lowell (4.6 points, 2.4 rebounds per game with the Wolverines).
Pope, on speaking about the Cougars’ inclusion in this tournament, said “We’re really excited about the opportunity to play at a great venue against a great program in Arizona State.” He continued, saying “but we’re even more excited to play in an arena that is a hotbed of BYU fans. We have great fans all over the country and we can’t wait to play in front of Cougar fans in Arizona.”
