After two seasons at Kentucky, Brandon Garrison has found his next school
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- Former UK basketball forward Brandon Garrison commits to Alabama from transfer portal.
- Garrison played two seasons at Kentucky for head coach Mark Pope.
- Garrison was a 2023 McDonald’s All-American out of high school.
One of Mark Pope’s first commitments at Kentucky has found his next college stop.
On Sunday night, UK junior forward Brandon Garrison committed to Alabama out of the NCAA transfer portal. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress was the first to report Garrison’s commitment.
A 6-foot-11 post player from Oklahoma, Garrison averaged 4.7 points and 4.1 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per game for the Wildcats during the 2025-26 season.
Garrison — who was a four-star recruit and a 2023 McDonald’s All-American out of high school — began his college career at Oklahoma State, before spending the past two seasons playing for Mark Pope at Kentucky.
Shortly after Pope was hired as Kentucky’s coach in April 2024, he made Garrison one of his top targets in the transfer portal. The Wildcats beat out several high-major programs for Garrison’s commitment. Garrison spent most of his two seasons at UK as a bench contributor.
As a sophomore at UK during the 2024-25 season, Garrison averaged 5.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 17.3 minutes per game.
Over the past two seasons, Garrison appeared in 71 of Kentucky’s 72 games. Garrison started five times for UK, and all of those starts came during the 2025-26 season.
Garrison saved his best performances at Kentucky for the end, though. He played a key role in UK’s postseason victories this past season against LSU in the SEC Tournament and against Santa Clara in the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve always felt like BG was probably the best switching 5 man in the country,” Pope said after Garrison had 10 points, seven rebounds and matched his career high with six blocks in Kentucky’s overtime win over Santa Clara in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Garrison — who only has one year of NCAA eligibility remaining — is joining a Crimson Tide program that has made six straight NCAA Tournaments under head coach Nate Oats.
This past season, Alabama reached the Sweet 16. The Crimson Tide made the Elite Eight in 2025 and the Final Four in 2024.
Seven players from Kentucky’s 2025-26 team have entered the transfer portal this offseason. Garrison is the fourth player to commit to a new school from the portal.
He’s joined by senior guard Denzel Aberdeen (Florida), sophomore guard Collin Chandler (BYU) and sophomore forward Andrija Jelavic (Ohio State).
