BYU Basketball: Arizona transfer Alex Barcello receives waiver to play immediately

Things were already looking good, and BYU officially got some good news from the NCAA as Arizona transfer Alex Barcello received a waiver from the NCAA to play immediately. The 6-foot-2 point will be a junior for the 2019-2020 season.

Barcello averaged 3.5 points per game in just under 10 minutes of action this past season as a sophomore for the Wildcats. Coming out of high school in 2017, Barcello was the Arizona Gatorade player of the year and a consensus 4-star recruit and top 100 player. As a high school senior, Barcello averaged 24.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, three assists and 2.1 steals while shooting 55% from the field and 89% from the free throw line.

Barcello doesn’t solve the size problem, but he is another offensive playmaker and solid on-ball defender that will improve this year’s team. He may not start, but he will likely be in the top 5 or 6 in minutes played. Barcello can shoot and has good court vision and handles, so he will be another piece in BYU’s up-tempo attack. BYU is going to go all in on small-ball and up-tempo pace, and having Barcello is a nice piece for this season’s team.

TJ Haws, Jake Toolson and Alex Barcello are BYU’s three best guards, so we’ll likely see those three guards on the court simultaneously quite a bit.

One downside is that Barcello won’t get two years as the feature point guard; had he redshirted this season, he would not of have to share the court with TJ Haws. While a boon to this year’s team, BYU could use Barcello two years from now too.

BYU is still waiting to hear from the NCAA on the status of UVU big man Richard Harward’s waiver. The other UVU big, Wyatt Lowell, never applied for a waiver and will redshirt this season.