Coach Mark Pope has drills to help Brandon Garrison and other players learn how to handle emotional situations. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Brandon Garrison knows that his emotional play can inspire teammates and disrupt opponents. He also knows that sometimes his emotional outbursts can hurt his team and wants to control his emotions better this season.
“That’s something we talk about,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “We’re very intentional about that. We’ll actually create situations in practice where we’re challenged. We talk about the response when we get super emotional. We do that for all our guys in a general sense and stress the next play mentality which is one of the biggest challenges for every athlete because we’re so competitive.
“Sometimes you get so frustrated by something that happened that you don’t run back on defense because you had this emotional outburst. We don’t want those outbursts to turn into a physical confrontation. Sometimes you get a physical skirmish and every athlete needs to get past that and go on to the next play.”
Pope said the challenge for Garrison containing his emotions is the same as it is for every other player.
“You have to move on to the next play and get really specific with Brandon. If a referee makes a bad call, you can either get distracted or move on to the next play. The other team goes on a run. You either get distracted or you move on to the next play. This is the universal challenge for every player and that certainly includes Brandon.”
Kentucky assistant coach Mikhail McLean knows Garrison has “a very energetic personality” and his emotions can impact any game.
“I think he probably had maybe one or two max times where he didn’t handle his emotions the right way last year,” McLean said. “But we desperately needed that on our team last year. We needed a guy that could give us that emotional burst off the bench.
“He’s in a really good head space. He’s learned a lot from last season and he probably had a better summer than anybody else in terms of what did outside of being here.”
Garrison said this summer that being a father — his son is almost 2 years old — has matured him.
“I want to show him the right direction. That makes me have to do the right things because I am doing it for somebody else. I thought I was taking things seriously before, but with him now I am even more locked in,” the UK junior center said. “
McLean believes that is true.
“He loves his son. He loves his family. His mom does a really good job of mentoring him and just teaching him the ways of being a good parent. He leans on us as a staff. He sees us with our kids,” McLean said. “He wants to hear how we have navigated different processes with our kids. My oldest is 6 years old and plays basketball. Brandon wants to know about youth sports and all that stuff. I told him Akari is young and he’s got plenty of time to worry about all that.”
3 Responses
Garrison should have a monster year, especially with Quaintance not being ready to play in the season opener. Moreno will get extra PT too. The team will be better for it when Quaintance does take the floor. Our frontcourt will be better defensively and offensively. Jelavic will be a big surprise, but shouldn't be as he has been playing pro ball for a couple of years. A lot have pegged Dioubate at the 4 spot, but I see him playing more at the 3 where he will be a matchup nightmare. Pope has a team that nobody will want to play come tournament time.
I agree. I think Mo D fits the athletic 3 mold. He can also shoot the ball, but that's not what he's known for. He is a Mr do it all. He rebounds at 6'7" probably better than anyone else his size. He averaged great numbers for only playing 19 minutes per game. I think he plays around the same amount of minutes maybe 20-21 a game. He will be our most physical rebounder. He plays incredible defense. He also hustles on every play. Aberdeen plays the same way he's just a little smaller. I could see Lowe/Oweh/Aberdeen/Mo D/ Garrison start the year out. All juniors and seniors. Once JQ gets 100% health they should slide Mo D to the 3 have JQ play the 4 and Garrison the 5. We could even play Johnson/Chandler/Noah/ Hawthorne /Jelavic playing small ball needing a 3.
Goodness – so many choices. To me, no matter who is in the game, I think we will be awesome. And I hope that the name on the front of the jersey means a lot to these guys. Surely they are learning that they have never had the support and love that BBN offers. Good luck Cats in pursuing #9. Always know you are loved and will forever be part of the Kentucky family. GO CATS!