{"id":83029,"date":"2025-02-09T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/brandon-garrison-15-points-were-his-most-since-playing-against-mark-pope\/"},"modified":"2025-02-09T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T16:30:00","slug":"brandon-garrison-15-points-were-his-most-since-playing-against-mark-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/brandon-garrison-15-points-were-his-most-since-playing-against-mark-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Garrison 15 points were his most since playing against\u2026 Mark Pope?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday inside Rupp Arena, Brandon Garrison<\/a><\/strong> played arguably his best game yet as a Wildcat.<\/p>\n

The sophomore center finished with 15 points on 7-8 shooting in Kentucky\u2019s 80-57 blowout win<\/a> over South Carolina. He knocked in just his sixth three-pointer of the season (more on that later) while tacking on two blocks, one rebound, and one assist with zero turnovers in his 20 minutes of action. It was his most action on the floor since playing 27 minutes all the way back on Jan. 7 against Georgia. <\/p>\n

Garrison was feasting inside, accumulating most of his buckets through dunks and tough finishes at the rim. Kentucky\u2019s ball handlers (shoutout to Lamont Butler<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s insertion back in the lineup) were finding him in the pick-and-roll and he was rewarding them with two points. Garrison had nine points in a little over a three-minute span during the second half. All six of his two-point makes were assisted, but he also spent plenty of time operating the offense from the top of the key. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor him to be a zero-turnover guy as much as he handled the ball was really special,\u201d Head coach Mark Pope<\/a><\/strong> said of Garrison postgame<\/a>. \u201cHe was much better with his rolls tonight. Sometimes he starts floating around, but he rolled hard tonight and guys found him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\n

“How about the big man!”
A pair of dunks from Brandon Garrison are today’s @lgeku<\/a> Power Plays of the Game. pic.twitter.com\/roMZhgy1uy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UK Sports Network (@UKSportsNetwork) February 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

What Pope saw from Garrison against South Carolina was probably similar to what he saw last season when the seven-footer was still at Oklahoma State. After all, Garrison\u2019s performance on Saturday was his highest-scoring game since he faced Pope\u2019s BYU squad in the Big 12. <\/strong>Garrison dropped a career-high 21 points as an Oklahoma State freshman against Pope and the Cougars on Feb. 17, 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen (Garrison is) hooping and it\u2019s clicking, it\u2019s huge for us. He\u2019s gonna bring the energy every game,\u201d Junior guard Otega Oweh<\/a><\/strong> said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All that being said, it wasn\u2019t a perfect<\/em> afternoon for Garrison. After making his lone three-pointer against South Carolina, he was (understandably) tagged with a technical foul for taunting his opponent. Pope called him over afterward and did some quick sideline coaching. \u201cJust him telling me keep my head,\u201d Garrison said of the short conversation with Pope.<\/p>\n

But that moment was more than just a poor decision by a young player who was happy to knock down a three. It\u2019s symbolic of the way Garrison plays, and I mean that as a positive. He embraces trash talk. He wants<\/em> to be Kentucky\u2019s energy-injector. After Garrison hit that three with 11:16 to go in the second half, the Wildcats led by 13. UK finished the game on a 30-20 run. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all good Brandon. It\u2019s all good,\u201d Pope said when asked if there is good and bad with Garrison\u2019s game. \u201cWe don\u2019t love people in slices<\/strong>. In fact what makes people great is the whole thing, right?<\/strong> If you spend two seconds with Brandon Garrison, you can\u2019t help but love him because he\u2019s got a joy and a innocence and a passion about him and a willingness.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why Pope will never<\/em> tell Garrison to rein in his energy or his emotions \u2014 that\u2019s part of what makes him go. More importantly, it feeds his teammates. Especially without Kerr Kriisa<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 who is *the* energy player \u2014 in the rotation, Kentucky needs someone like that to get the emotions flowing. Garrison is more than happy to take the torch.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Pope is) always looking for energy,\u201d Garrison said. \u201cKerr is out. He was an energetic guy for the team so he asked me to step up and be that role. I feel like I gotta do that for the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

If a technical foul is what it takes for Garrison to score 15 points every night, that\u2019s a trade-off everyone will happily accept. <\/p>\n

The post Brandon Garrison 15 points were his most since playing against\u2026 Mark Pope?<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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