Brandon Garrison shares how Mark Pope pushes him to be a leader

The first season of the Mark Pope era at Kentucky was a resounding success, as the Wildcats advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2019.

Four contributing players from Pope’s first team will return this season for his second team, including All-SEC selection Otega Oweh, Collin Chandler, Trent Noah and Brandon Garrison. Garrison, who averaged 5.9 points and 3.9 rebounds as a backup forward last season, is embracing a leadership role this season.

“It’s just something me and coach [Mark] Pope talked about right after the season,” Garrison said at Tuesday’s media opportunity. “It’s something that I want to do and it’s about doing the small things like that to help move that direction. I’d say it’s [Pope] and me but really just me.”

Garrison played one season at Oklahoma State before transferring to Kentucky for the 2024-25 season. As a Cowboy, the Oklahoma City, OK native averaged 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds. He saw his role diminish immediately by transferring to Kentucky, but the opportunity to play in front of the Big Blue Nation was too good to pass up.

“I’m telling them that BBN is going to show them nothing but love,” Garrison responded when asked about leading the new guys. “Even when we’re not playing as good they’re still going to love you. When you’re playing great they’re going to love you of course. I was just telling them about playing in Rupp [Arena], it’s something that you’re never gonna forget. They’re just gonna have to see it for themselves like I did.”

Kentucky brought in the No. 2 ranked Transfer Portal class this offseason, consisting of guard Denzel Aberdeen (Florida), forward Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama), guard Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh), forward Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State), center Reece Potter (Miami OH) and forward Kam Williams (Tulane).

“Brandon is, I’m telling you, he’s fun, right?” Pope said about Garrison prior to Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament game against Illinois last season. “He’s sometimes wrong but never in doubt. And I love that about him. That’s what you want your players to be. He’s doing really special things. His float game has grown to the free throw line, his three-point game is really, really dangerous right now.

“His decisiveness on turning down decisions to get to the good one, he’s a high-level decision-maker for us. He’s got the ball in his hands. We have three cutters going at the same time and he’ll turn down, turn down, turn down, and finally choose the right one, and that’s advanced-level processing in his mind. He’s been really great.”