For Brandon Garrison and Mark Pope, everything is going according to plan
The only McDonald’s All-American on Mark Pope’s first Kentucky roster had been a 29-game starter at the high-major level in his first year of college basketball.
This time a year ago — as Pope was putting the finishing touches on his group of Wildcats going into the 2024-25 season — Brandon Garrison was the new UK acquisition getting the most buzz in NBA draft circles.
Yet when his first season with the Cats was finished, a look at the final statistics showed Garrison sitting seventh in minutes played, seventh in shots taken and seventh in points scored.
Nine players made Pope’s starting lineup over the course of the season. Garrison wasn’t one of them.
So, as soon as the offseason began, speculation naturally turned to what Garrison might do next. Especially these days — with the transfer portal offering ample opportunity to jump ship and coaches with positional needs having plenty of NIL money to spend — changes of scenery are commonplace.
But as that speculation surrounding a possible transfer reached its highest point, Garrison became the first Kentucky player to confirm that he’d be back for another year in Lexington.
And the timing of his announcement was no coincidence.
Pope had already added former Alabama power forward Mouhamed Dioubate and ex-Arizona State post player Jayden Quaintance — two starter-level transfers — to the 2025-26 UK frontcourt before 6-foot-11 forward Andrija Jelavic, another player with NBA upside, jumped aboard. And the Cats also had McDonald’s All-American center Malachi Moreno joining the program.
Garrison’s announcement that he’d return to UK came just a few hours after news of Jelavic’s commitment, a clear sign that he knew exactly what he was walking back into.
Over a couple of interviews with the Herald-Leader in recent days — after the window for entering the transfer portal had passed — Garrison reflected some on his first season at Kentucky, but he was mostly laser-focused on the future.
And he made it clear that, so far, everything has worked out exactly as he and Pope planned.
When Garrison committed to the Cats last spring, Pope had already secured a commitment from veteran center Amari Williams, who ended up starting all 36 games during the 2024-25 season — joining leading scorer Otega Oweh as the only UK player to do so — and turned out to be one of the Wildcats’ most important players.
And that was part of the original plan, too.
“We just talked about, first, getting my body right,” Garrison said of his earliest conversations with Pope. “And then being able to play against Amari in practice for the first year, and then — for the next year — he had talked about me getting that leader role.”
Garrison repeatedly referred to the arrangement as a “two-year plan” for his development, and — while Pope made it clear he would get every opportunity to compete for as much playing time as possible — Garrison knew going into last season that Williams was most likely to get the starting job.
In a late-season interview with the Herald-Leader, the UK head coach confirmed the nature of those discussions. Pope recalled telling Garrison that he had no internal competition in his first college season at Oklahoma State — a team that ended up with a losing record — and, to further his own game, he needed someone of comparable talent to go against every day in practice.
“You should come learn and grow and compete,” Pope said he told him. “You’re gonna get so much better if you compete with Amari every day.”
From day one, Pope and the UK coaches deconstructed Garrison’s game in order to build it back up again. He had Williams pushing him to the limit every day in practice. Known as a gifted passer, he was put in positions outside of his comfort zone to try and bring out more of that trait.
Garrison shot zero 3-pointers as a college freshman, yet Pope saw a player with a good stroke from the mid-range — a 6-10 power forward who should be capable of making shots from deep. He took 40 3-pointers in his first season at Kentucky, making 12 of them, getting more and more comfortable with it along the way.
And while there were certainly growing pains as he got used to a new system, a new approach and an entirely new set of demands, there was growth by the end of the season.
One of Garrison’s best games came in his NCAA Tournament debut, when he scored 13 points, grabbed six rebounds, dished out a couple of assists and knocked down a 3-pointer in Kentucky’s 76-57 victory over Troy, sparking a run in the second half that helped the Cats pull away.
The next day, Pope was asked about his sophomore big man’s growing confidence. He summed it up well.
“Brandon is, I’m telling you, he’s fun. He’s sometimes wrong but never in doubt, and I love that about him,” the coach said with a smile. “That’s what you want your players to be. And he’s doing really special things. I mean, his float game has grown to the free-throw line. His 3-point game is really, really dangerous right now. His decisiveness on turning down decisions to get to the good one — he’s a huge, high-level decision-maker for us.
“He’s got the ball in his hands. And you guys will see him — if we have three cutters going at the same time — he’ll be like a turn down, a turn down, a turn down and finally choose the right one. And that’s advanced-level processing in his mind. He’s been really great.”
What’s next for Brandon Garrison?
Part one of that two-year plan wasn’t easy.
As Garrison said, to play for Pope, he first needed to get his body right.
He can laugh about it now, but Garrison was not in game shape — by Pope’s standards for what he wanted his first Kentucky team to be — when he arrived in Lexington last season. He and his teammates later told the stories of the sophomore big man who was gassed during early conditioning.
“It was tough,” Garrison acknowledged. “Because he likes to play fast, up and down. So the workouts were hard. But I just feel like you gotta do hard stuff to get great.”
Outside of the team drills, Garrison ran on the treadmill, hit the exercise bike and had individual workouts with head strength coach Randy Towner, who he credited with helping him get up to speed.
He’s getting a head start on all of that in preparation for his junior year.
Garrison has spent the past few weeks in the gym with Kentucky’s staff, continuing to get his body in better shape and working on some aspects of his game that should make him a more versatile player next season.
His position coach, UK assistant Mikhail McLean, has worked extensively with Garrison this spring. The routine switches up from day to day.
They’ve worked on developing into a better catch-and-shoot player. Garrison has been doing a lot more ball-handling this spring. Making sure he’s following through on his long-range shots — a must, according to Pope — has been a major emphasis.
McLean has also been hammering home specific plays that Williams and Garrison ran from the perimeter last season, with the returning Wildcat promising that style — with the ball in the big man’s hands well away from the basket — would be returning.
Another part of that two-year plan — plenty of worthy competition within the team — is also back.
Just because Williams is gone doesn’t mean Garrison will have it easy in practice. In fact, he might find it much tougher this time around. And Pope let him know that as soon as this past season was over.
“He told me we were gonna load up on bigs,” Garrison said, a smile on his face that indicated he welcomed the challenge.
While Garrison was grateful for the competition with Williams last season, he lamented that the lack of true big men on Pope’s first roster limited what could be done in practice. The team’s two power forwards were Andrew Carr, who operated quite a bit on the perimeter, and Ansley Almonor, a 6-7 player who played even more around the 3-point line.
Garrison said that left him and Williams battling each other almost exclusively. And Pope told him this spring that the new roster — with Quaintance, Moreno, Jelavic and Dioubate, along with 6-8 wing Kam Williams — would allow him more reps at the 4 spot in practice and in games.
And while Quaintance, a projected NBA lottery pick, is coming off an ACL injury — a fact that has many penciling in Garrison as the starting 5 to begin the season — the competition for spots anywhere in the frontcourt will be fierce.
With a better foundation of conditioning, a still-growing game with plenty of promise, and an overflowing level of confidence, expect Garrison to do his share of battling for those minutes.
Even as he was getting used to Pope’s style last summer and fall, Garrison drew praise for his teammates for his combination of motor and physicality. And after that NCAA Tournament win over Troy, freshman guard Collin Chandler — another returnee for the 2025-26 roster — said it had remained a staple all season long.
“We know what we’re going to get out of BG,” Chandler said. “Make shots, miss shots. It doesn’t matter. He does the controllables very well. His energy is great every game. He’s rebounding and defending — the things you can control. We know what we’re getting out of BG every night.”
Pope’s plan for next season
The final part of Pope’s two-year plan for Garrison might make for the most difficult adjustment.
Last season, he was one of the kids on Kentucky’s roster, which featured seven seniors — six of whom were in their fifth year of college — and one junior, plus a couple of walk-ons who had spent two previous years at UK.
This season, Pope will have a more diverse group, in terms of experience. Garrison, who turned 21 a few weeks ago, will be one of five upperclassmen — assuming Oweh pulls out of the NBA draft — and he’ll have the added track record of playing a full season under Pope. As the roster is currently constructed, seven UK players will be underclassmen and eight will be newcomers to Kentucky’s program.
Garrison spent last season in more of a follower role. He’s serious about stepping up in year two, repeatedly mentioning his desire to act and be seen as a leader on the 2025-26 squad.
“I feel like I’ll be in that position to be able to speak up,” he said. “Or if somebody is doing something wrong, tell them, like, ‘Let’s pick it up.’ Or if somebody is doing good, you know, just encouraging your teammates. I feel like I’ll be able to step up in that role.”
A year with Pope has helped in Garrison’s personal journey. He said he did a lot of growing up, on and off the court, since arriving in Lexington last spring.
As a player, his on-court demeanor at times drifted into potentially dangerous territory. On multiple occasions, Pope or a teammate intervened to keep a situation involving Garrison from escalating.
One late-season example saw Williams steer Garrison away from a near-skirmish after the buzzer sounded on an emotionally charged victory at Oklahoma, with the sophomore playing in his home state in front of dozens of friends and family. (That was arguably his best game of the season, by the way.)
But a few weeks later, Garrison’s pestering resulted in frustrations boiling over on the other side, with the UK big man’s physical play leading to a Troy player getting called for a flagrant foul. Garrison didn’t retaliate. The next day, Williams smiled and nodded in appreciation of his young teammate’s restraint.
“He’s grown a lot,” he said.
Garrison acknowledged that he’s often in the middle of such situations, but he said he didn’t see himself as a dirty player or even one that went out of his way to cause trouble. He simply thinks his combination of physical play and a high motor can sometimes lead to testy moments.
And, as long as he doesn’t take things too far, Garrison said Pope has encouraged him to not back away from that natural approach.
Away from the court, Garrison said that Pope purposely puts his players in uncomfortable social situations. He explained that UK’s players had to give at least two pregame speeches in the locker room over the course of the season. At public events, the coach makes them stand up and address the crowd. In team meetings, everyone is expected to talk.
While plenty gregarious, Garrison never saw himself as a public speaker. He’s getting used to it.
“It’s him getting us out of our comfort zone,” he said. “I feel like it helped us. … I feel it helps grow your confidence to be able to get out of your comfort zone.”
All of this will come in handy down the line, no matter what happens in Garrison’s basketball career. In the short term, he wants to help lead this new group of Wildcats, and he’s looking forward to the arrival of his new teammates.
Garrison was in their spot this time last year. He was still finding his way when he got to Lexington, and that’s an ongoing process. But he feels like he’s grown up, and he plans to keep on growing in the coming months.
If all goes according to the two-year plan, Garrison might be in a position to make the NBA at the end of next season. He’s working toward that goal, too, but he’s not taking anything for granted.
And that’s something else he learned from those Kentucky seniors last year.
“You know, since the first day we got there, they were like, ‘Dang, my college years went by so fast. And this year will go by even faster.’ So I just listened to them.”
Garrison grinned as he recounted another lesson learned.
“And working hard every day, even when you don’t feel like it.”
