Bill Self explains Kansas star’s illness and uncertainty over his status vs. Kentucky
For most of the day leading up to Tuesday night’s Champions Classic matchup with Kentucky, it appeared that Kansas star Marcus Garrett wouldn’t be able to play.
KU Coach Bill Self announced on his pregame radio show that Garrett — the reigning national defensive player of the year — would be out with an illness, though he said it was not related to COVID-19. Yet, when the starting lineups were announced, Garrett’s name was on the list. And when the ball was tipped, he was out on the court.
Following Kansas’ 65-62 victory, Self said that Garrett told him during the team shootaround earlier Tuesday that he couldn’t play that night and wasn’t even going to suit up or go through pregame warm-ups.
“He had a real problem with headaches and the bright lights, and his stomach was messed up and he couldn’t get his wind,” Self said.
The Kansas coach said he didn’t know what changed over the course of the day, and he didn’t find out until the team got on the bus to go to the arena that Garrett was going to give it a go.
The senior guard ended up playing 35 minutes, going for eight points, five rebounds and a steal.
“He didn’t play great, by Marcus standards, but we wouldn’t have won the game unless he was out there,” Self said.
Self praised Garrett for his toughness, and the ESPN broadcast team lauded the Kansas star for his courage. ESPN announcer Dan Shulman acknowledged during the game that Garrett was having stomach problems and fatigue, that he had a fever at one point and was having “a tough time breathing” in the Jayhawks’ game against Saint Joseph’s on Friday.
But, at a time when dozens of schools have had to pause basketball activities due to COVID-19 — and with Garrett apparently suffering some of the symptoms associated with the virus — there were plenty on social media questioning why he was even allowed to play at all.
Self said that Garrett started feeling ill Friday, the day of the Saint Joseph’s game, and he was tested for COVID-19 the next day. He was tested again before the game against UK on Tuesday, and Self said that both of those tests — which he said were PCR tests — came back negative.
Both of the teams Kansas played last week — Gonzaga on Thursday and Saint Joseph’s on Friday — have had positive COVID tests in recent days, and Saint Joseph’s announced Sunday that the program would pause basketball activities for 14 days as a result of a positive test.
Self expressed no fears that Garrett’s illness was related to COVID-19 following Tuesday’s game.
“His issues that he has is not that,” he said. “Hopefully we get him back and do whatever docs do to figure out what it is and get him on the right meds and get him feeling better.”
Self said Monday that he wasn’t concerned about his program’s COVID-19 situation — even after playing against Gonzaga and Saint Joseph’s last week — heading into Tuesday night’s game with Kentucky.
“I don’t think this is going to be a year where you can be worried about everything that potentially can happen, because there are going to be things that happen all the time,” he said. “I know that we tested Saturday evening, and I know the tests were all negative. I know our medical staff has worked with Kentucky’s medical staff, and they’ve done all the contact tracing.
“I guess there’s always a concern that something can happen. ... When something happens to a third party, you have to do your due diligence. But I don’t know that you could just fret or worry about things you have no control over. If that were something that happened in the future where a guy has to sit or a guy has got to get quarantined or whatever, then you just do it. There’s no decisions to be made. But in this particular situation, I think all the medical people feel pretty comfortable with this.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 1:06 AM.
