‘You can’t help but love him.’ This UK player is growing his game; Mark Pope is noticing
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During the middle of his postgame press conference Saturday — following a much-needed home victory against South Carolina — Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope was asked about sophomore forward Brandon Garrison, who boasts a gregarious personality on and off the floor.
That Pope was asked about Garrison wasn’t a surprise. The 6-foot-10 forward had just authored his best scoring game of the season, a 15-point performance in which he was 7-for-8 from the field, including a 6-for-6 showing inside the 3-point arc.
But the question posed to Pope centered around Garrison’s personality, and the energy — both good and bad — that comes with the second-year player from Oklahoma City.
Pope, politely, dismissed the question’s core idea.
“It’s all good Brandon (energy), it’s all good. We don’t love people in slices,” Pope said. “In fact, what makes people great is the whole thing, right? I mean if you spend two seconds with Brandon Garrison, you can’t help but love him, because he’s got a joy and an innocence and a passion about him and a willingness.”
What Pope has come to realize — and plenty of UK basketball fans along with him — is that you get the whole package with Garrison.
In 22 appearances for UK this season, all off the bench, Garrison has flashed the immense potential that comes with his skill set. He’s had high-scoring games, standout defensive displays and passing performances that show why he was a 2023 McDonald’s All-American selection.
On the season, Garrison — who has cited former Kentucky center Bam Adebayo and small forward Scottie Barnes as NBA players that he studies — is averaging 6.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
His growth hasn’t been linear. At times, Garrison has faded into the background for the Wildcats. Sometimes, he’s even been played off the floor. But, with the college basketball postseason looming, Garrison is rounding into form as the most polished version of himself yet.
All four of Garrison’s double-digit scoring efforts this season have come against high-major opponents, including three in UK’s last nine SEC games. He has been one of UK’s most efficient players when shooting from the field, and his versatile offensive abilities keep opposing defenses honest.
Garrison’s 3-point shooting also continues to develop, and a rarely-used lineup combination deployed by Pope on Saturday, featuring Garrison, could get some more use as the season hits the stretch run.
Beyond all of this, Pope is maintaining a big-picture perspective with the 20-year-old Garrison.
“He’s growing,” Pope said Saturday, setting the table for his key words of wisdom. “Sometimes we talk about some of the growth that happens underground. Like the roots growing. We’re seeing moments from him, but his foundation right now is growing so solid and so wide. He’s preparing himself for major, major jumps. And he’s got a really terrific future.”
Brandon Garrison shows basketball potential at UK
First-year assistant coach Mikhail McLean specializes in working with UK’s bigs. That’s a bit of a lonely endeavor, given that Garrison and fifth-year center Amari Williams are the only players whose guidance specifically falls under McLean’s oversight.
But that also means Garrison and McLean — who played in 102 career college games at Houston — have had the time to form a tight connection since they arrived in Lexington last summer.
To be clear, Garrison committed to Kentucky out of the transfer portal with plenty of tangible talent. As a freshman, Garrison played in all 32 games for Oklahoma State during the 2023-24 season, averaging 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game for the Cowboys.
After Oklahoma State fired former coach Mike Boynton, Garrison hit the portal, where he was ranked as a top-60 player in college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa’s portal rankings.
Garrison was a portal priority for Pope at Kentucky. And it’s been easy to see why, given Garrison’s length and passing acumen.
Garrison had a negative assist to turnover ratio during his lone season at Oklahoma State. That’s become a positive 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio this season.
“Coach Pope has a very unique offense and it allows the bigs to be point guards at times,” Garrison said postgame on Saturday. “… We’re not always just stuck on the block like how other teams have their bigs, so just him allowing us to run the (point), run the offense, I feel like it’s helping the team a lot.”
“In terms of development, a lot of the stuff that we do (with Garrison and Williams) starts off always with ball handling and contact ball handling and pressure ball handling and just being able just to handle the ball,” McLean, Garrison’s position coach, told the Herald-Leader. “Not doing a whole bunch of dribble moves, but just being able to handle the ball with immense pressure.”
Garrison’s 2.2 assists per game this season rank fourth on the UK team, behind only fifth-year guards Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa (who hasn’t played since Dec. 7) and Williams, who made UK basketball history last week with a triple-double.
The 6-foot-10 Garrison has logged 12 multi-assist games this season for the Cats.
Something that was evident to McLean when he began working with Garrison last summer is that the former high school All-American had all the tools to be the kind of big-man passer that thrives in Pope’s offensive system.
“In the few situations that Oklahoma State lifted him to the high post, (and) they threw it to him in the trail spot, he showed potential to make those reads,” McLean said. “Then, if you look at it like, ‘OK, well, if he did this in this small sample size, if you increase his volume and he did this seven or eight more possessions, will he get this many more assists?’”
If you ask McLean where Garrison has made the biggest gains from when he first arrived at UK, the answer is clear.
“He would travel almost every possession in our actions, and we’re like, ‘OK, let’s figure out the footwork,’” McLean recounted. “So his goal every practice was zero turnovers. One thing that we try to do as a staff is we try to give our guys measurable goals that they can they can reach every day, and we change those goals game to game. (Garrison) went into practices not worried about making seven 3s, not worried about getting five rebounds. Like, ‘I’m going to go into this practice, and my biggest goal is to have zero turnovers.’”
With that as his focus, Garrison was able to stack day after day in practice without giving the ball away. That repetition is now bearing fruit. Garrison only has one turnover in his last 74 minutes on the floor. Over that same period, he’s dished out seven assists.
“He’s got a real flavor for passing out of all of our actions and he’s pretty disciplined about it,” Pope said.
“I feel like it’s always been in my game because when I first started playing, I feel like I was a pass-first dude,” Garrison added. “So just being that guy helped me with my passing ability.”
As part of his work with Kentucky’s bigs, McLean also emphasizes finishing at the rim. That’s been a particular strength for Kentucky’s elite offense this season. The Wildcats have the 10th-most dunks in the nation with 103. More than 13% of Kentucky’s 2-point field goal attempts this season have been classified as dunk attempts, according to college basketball analytics website BartTorvik.com.
It’s almost a perfect parallel that Garrison’s energy on the court includes a powerful dunking ability. He threw down two successful slams, separated by only 55 seconds, in the second half of Saturday’s win against South Carolina.
Just 40 seconds after the second of these dunks, Garrison also nailed a 3-pointer, which hinted at the most tantalizing part of his offensive game.
Last season at Oklahoma State, Garrison took zero shots from beyond the arc. This season, Garrison is 6-for-20 (30%) on 3-pointers. It’s not an Earth-shattering statistic, but it’s a clear step in the right direction as Garrison expands his offensive profile.
McLean said Garrison’s development as a distance shooter began during a team shooting drill in the summer, when Garrison was insistent on shooting 3s.
“His numbers were similar to the average guys on our team. So at that point, we knew that he could shoot. We’re like, ‘Hey man, you know what? You’re confident, let’s just continue to work on it,’” McLean said. “Then, after he figured out the zero turnovers, a goal of mine for him was (shooting) two 3s per practice, because you’re never going to shoot them in the game unless you attempt them in practice. Then he started making them in practice, and we’re like, ‘You shoot the 3 so well, just pick your spots. If you’re wide-open, shoot it, because no one’s going to run out of control and close out.’”
Garrison is far from knock-down shooter status, but his numbers are solid. He’s 4-for-11 (36.4%) in SEC play on 3s, and the mere threat of Garrison pulling from deep is something opponents have to be aware of against UK, which closed the weekend with the second-best offensive rating in the nation, per KenPom.
“He’s got a future that’s going to be so stunning that he won’t be out of his mind excited when he bangs a 3 because that will become really, really normal,” said Pope, who also took time Saturday to praise Garrison’s defensive performance against the Gamecocks.
Pope teases UK lineups with Brandon Garrison, Amari Williams
When the Herald-Leader asked Pope on Saturday about Garrison’s on-court development, the UK coach pointed to a new-look lineup that the Wildcats utilized, sparingly, against the Gamecocks.
Garrison and Williams shared the floor in a two-big lineup for only two minutes against South Carolina, but the results were good. The Cats outscored the Gamecocks 8-1 in that span.
“They were actually really effective,” Pope said.
With March looming, now is the time to project how teams will fare in the postseason. Sure, some of this will come down to individual performance, coaching philosophies and good old-fashioned luck with the NCAA Tournament draw.
But March Madness games are won and lost on the margins. And a potential X-factor, like playing Garrison and Williams together, could be something that separates Kentucky.
“Just me being able to shoot the 3, (Williams) down there, sealing, just little things like that,” Garrison said. “… Two bigs out there rebounding the ball. I feel like it just gives us different looks.”
Even when Kentucky maintains its normal substitution pattern and plays one of Garrison or Williams at a time, the differing skill sets offered by each player is notable.
“The thing that makes us special at Kentucky is that we try to get to a moment where our depth is what punishes people,” McLean said. “When you’ve got to deal with Amari for seven minutes straight, then BG comes in like an energizer bunny.”
Months of practice battles with Williams — who has played in 128 career college games and has earned three conference defensive player of the year honors — has also undoubtedly helped Garrison.
“Just the defensive side of me guarding (Williams) and him being a veteran, just teaching me little things that I know,” Garrison said. “I feel like it’s helping my game grow a lot.”
Garrison’s role as an energy-giver on this UK team is also something he takes pride in. And it’s something that he says has long been part of his basketball identity.
“I feel like just since high school, I’ve really been an energy dude,” said Garrison, who noted that Pope asked him to step up his energy level once Kriisa suffered a long-term injury on Dec. 7. “Just always having fun, laughing, being hype all the time. I feel like that’s just me.”
But that’s also something that can get him in trouble. Garrison has been called for two technical fouls this season, which is tied with Williams for the most by a UK player. One came during Kentucky’s overtime win against Gonzaga in early December. The other came Saturday against South Carolina. Garrison also picked up two technical fouls last season at Oklahoma State.
Nobody is overly concerned about this aspect of Garrison’s game, but it speaks to both the energy he brings to the floor and the process of learning how to effectively channel it.
“When you see his face, he’s kind of wide-eyed and big smile and he’s just kind of, like, going to tell you how he is and how he’s feeling and what he’s doing,” Pope said. “He has a real joy to him. He’s a special young man. It’s a real pleasure to coach him.”
On and off the floor, Garrison is shouldering more responsibilities this season compared to last. That Garrison continues to evolve as a player is a reflection of both his work ethic and sky-high potential.
McLean can summarize Garrison’s trajectory in one anecdote. About two weeks into Kentucky’s offseason training camp — and during the thick of two-a-day practices — Garrison, McLean and Pope met together after Garrison had a particularly special practice. Per McLean, these were Pope’s words to the sophomore.
“If you do what you did in this practice, every single day in practice, and you carry that over to the game, you could make millions upon millions upon millions of dollars,” the Kentucky coach told Garrison. “How much are you willing to sacrifice to get to this level?”
From that point on, Garrison’s commitment level went up, encompassing everything from diet and rest, to recovery habits and sleep schedule.
“Just keep putting in the work and you get good results out of it,” Garrison said. “You can’t cheat the game.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 6:45 AM.
