Mark Pope calls for Brandon Garrison to step into leadership role

Kentucky‘s senior leadership from last season is gone. While the Wildcats will miss their veterans, they also recognize the opportunity for new leaders to emerge. Kentucky head coach Mark Pope believes junior forward Brandon Garrison needs to be one of those leaders.

“He needs to be a leader,” Pope said. “I’m really proud of him, how he’s approached this offseason. He’s been really hungry. He’s been working really hard, and his job now as a returning player is to come teach all the other guys — whether they’re more senior than him or not, he’s one of our few returning guys that knows what we do, knows how we do it, knows the expectation, knows the standard.

“It was really fun in the last month of the season to see him start to take on some leadership role, even with the veteran-laden team that we had last year. You started to hear his voice more. You started to feel his intensity a little bit more. He’s changed, like he’s grown. It’s been awesome.”

Garrison transferred to Kentucky last offseason after spending his freshman year at Oklahoma State. In his debut campaign with the Wildcats, Garrison made 35 appearances, averaging 5.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.

Garrison shot 50.9% from the field and 30.0% from beyond the arc. He was a spark plug off the bench for Kentucky and would often energize his fellow Wildcats with his fiery style of play. Evidently, Garrison is wasting no time sharing his passion for the game with his new teammates.

“We had four new coming players on official visits altogether; it was a really fun weekend,” Pope said, referring to when four incoming transfers visited in April. “We had the guys in my house for a long breakfast and kind of hang out. Brandon Garrison came, and it was really fun to watch him holding court with those four guys. He kind of went out of his way to come over and then sit with those guys and kind of talk to them about what it is and what it’s like and what it requires. 

“They think of Brandon Garrison as being a big brother right now, super cool, because he’ll be the first to tell you that Amari Williams was a life-changing mentor for him. He’s excited about moving into that position where he gets to help some other guys come along, and he’s going to be really good.”

Garrison will have plenty of fresh faces to mentor next season. Kentucky has six incoming transfers and three freshmen. For the first time in his career, Garrison will be the most experienced big man on the roster next season.