Mark Pope Says There’s No Way Not To Love Brandon Garrison

Brandon Garrison was all smiles against South Carolina. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Sophomore center Brandon Garrison can be a bundle of energy and enthusiasm on the court and also a big-time playmaker like he was in Saturday’s win over South Carolina and scored 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field.

However, sometimes his overzealous attitude can draw attention from officials — and opponents — when he maybe celebrates a bit much after a score or lets his frustration show when he disagrees with a call.

Kentucky coach Mark Pope said “it’s all good” with Garrison when asked about balancing his ups and downs.

“We don’t love people in slices.  If that’s what makes people great is the whole thing, right?  If you spent two seconds with Brandon Garrison you can’t help but love him because he’s got a joy and innocence and passion about him and a willingness and … there is not a duplicitous bone in his body in the sense of like how he approaches people,” Pope said.

“When you see his face he’s wide-eyed and has a big smile and he’s just kind of like, you know going to tell you how he is and how he’s feeling and what he’s doing. He got a real joy to him and he’s a real special young man and a real pleasure to coach them.”

Pope then explained in his own unique way how Garrison was growing daily.

“Sometimes we talk about some of the growth that happens underground. Like the roots growing. We are seeing moments from him but his foundation right now is growing so solid and so wide,” the UK coach said. “He’s preparing himself for major, major jumps. 

“He’s got a really terrific future. 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.”

Garrison and starting center Amari Williams played more minutes together against South Carolina than they had in any other game this season. Pope thought they were “really effective” together. He also praised Garrison’s dunk game and defense.

“We were blitzing certain ball screens and we were down and we blitzed. In the second half, he had a blitz away from our bench on the left wing where he was really, really aggressive, got in a trap and stayed a little bit too long in the trap. We got behind on the rotation and then he came from behind and made the next effort,” Pope said.

“Coach Mikhail McLean was just in his own beautiful way stressing our guys on multiple efforts through the rebound and he made a multiple effort play and came from behind and blocked a shot and it was really important for us and an important moment in the game. He is starting to understand how to string together efforts in the same play and that’s pretty exciting for us.”

Pope said Garrison had a “real flavor” for passing out of any UK offensive set.

“He’s pretty disciplined about it for him to be a zero turnover guy as much as he handles the ball,” Pope said. “He was much better with his roles tonight. Sometimes he starts floating around but he rolled hard tonight and guys found him. He was terrific.”

He likely will need to be terrific again Tuesday night when Kentucky hosts Tennessee, a team the Cats stunned in Knoxville last month.