In a huge boost for Dartmouth, reports emerged Monday that Brendan Barry will return to the Big Green rather than play elsewhere as a graduate transfer.
Jeff Borzello of ESPN reported that Barry would take off the final quarter of this academic year and graduate next spring, allowing him to play a fourth year for the Big Green, who missed his ball distribution and three-point shooting last season.
As a junior in 2018-19, Barry led the Ivy League in three-point percentage (44.1%), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2) and minutes per game (35.5), averaging 13 points and 3.2 assists per contest.
Without Barry in 2019-20, the Big Green’s three-point shooting percentage plummeted to 31.1% (285th nationally) from 35.6% (105th nationally) the season before.
Barry told Pittsburgh Sports Now that he had visited Wake Forest and been in contact with Pittsburgh, Temple and Iowa State. Borzello had reported that Barry’s main schools were those four plus Georgetown, Michigan, Santa Clara and DePaul.
Barry noted the possibility of staying with Dartmouth in an interview with Pittsburgh Sports Now published last week.
“In terms of a favorite, I wouldn’t say there is one, I still actually have the opportunity to go back to Dartmouth to play a fifth year,” Barry said. “So that’s obviously fresh in my mind from playing there for three years and being involved this last year, even with the injury. So, that’s definitely up there.”
Dartmouth has been hit hard by transfers in recent years, losing previous standouts Alex Mitola and Evan Boudreaux to other programs. Dartmouth redshirt sophomore Trevon Ary-Turner has entered the transfer portal, per Verbal Commits, after averaging 5.8 points in 19.5 minutes per game this past season after having played sparingly for Weber State in 2017-18.
A native of Fair Haven, N.J., Barry has averaged 9.8 points and three assists per game in his three seasons at Dartmouth.
It appears he’s up for one more season in Hanover, where he’ll be asked to do what he was hoping to do wherever he landed: lead.
“That’s big for me,” Barry said. “I want to enter a situation where I could provide leadership. I only have one year left and I want to make the most of it. I want to win, I want to go to the NCAA Tournament. It goes both ways and obviously they want it to work out for them. So just making that relationship work I’d say is the main thing.”