Bryce Barnes may not have been a star, but he was a near-perfect pickup on the grad transfer market for Dane Fischer. Barnes’ grad senior year was about as good as anyone could expect it to be.

Overview

I had no idea who Bryce Barnes was when it was reported that he was heading to William and Mary as a graduate transfer from Milwaukee. After watching some highlights, he seemed like a good fit considering the 2018-19 Tribe had lacked a true playmaking point guard. It turned out that Barnes would fill that role better than anybody could have expected.

The 2018-19 team played point guard by committee — Luke Loewe started all 31 games at what was nominally a point guard position, but his skillset offensively wasn’t suited to that role. LJ Owens, Thornton Scott also contributed at point guard, but both were more 2-guards, looking for their own shots. Looking back, if there was one hole in that team, it was the inability to really distribute the ball to their scorers. In other words — they really missed a player like David Cohn offensively.

Owens left after the season, along with Justin Pierce, Matt Milon, and Chase Audige, but Bryce Barnes entered. Barnes filled the traditional point guard position to a T, and in doing so, allowed Loewe and Scott to play more without the ball.

That’s not to say that Barnes’ only contribution was allowing other players to play positions more suited to their skillsets — he was also a good, solid point guard. He averaged 3.4 assists per game and ranked fourth in the CAA in assist to turnover ratio. He had the potential to score if defenses didn’t pay attention, going for 21 against Hampton and 18 at home against Drexel. Defensively, he led the team in steals and was a vocal leader.

Barnes’ success, and the success of the team because of it, speaks to Dane Fischer’s ability to diagnose areas of need and fill them. Barnes and fellow grad transfer Tyler Hamilton were on the market late. While they might not have been the pick of power conference programs, they filled a need for the Tribe, especially Barnes.

Here’s a Number: .451

There aren’t that many interesting numbers for Bryce Barnes — he didn’t do anything spectacularly, but he was solid all around. Although Barnes was not a volume shooter, he shot .451 from the field, which was good for 15th in the conference. He was pretty efficient when he needed to be.

A Lasting Memory

There are a few candidates for this, but I’ll choose Barnes’ buzzer-beating game winner at Wofford. Everybody on the floor thought the ball was going to go to Nathan Knight… until Barnes refused Knight’s screen, beat his man and laid the ball in with less than four seconds to go.