Brandon Garrison took advantage of his extended playing time vs. Georgia

Mark Pope had no choice but to give Brandon Garrison some extra run during Kentucky’s 82-69 loss against Georgia on Tuesday night. But the sophomore big man stepped right into a larger role and looked anything but uncomfortable despite the buzzing road environment.

Let’s first explain why Pope rolled with Garrison for most of this game.

Kentucky was in foul trouble for nearly the entire night against the Bulldogs. Starting center Amari Williams was tagged with two fouls less than eight minutes into the game. He picked up his third right before halftime and received his fourth just three minutes into the second half. Williams saw a season-low 13 minutes.

Starting power forward Andrew Carr was hit with just one foul in the first half but picked up three more in the first nine minutes of the second half. 24 minutes of action marked his fourth-fewest of the season. Even backup forward Ansley Almonor finished with four fouls. Options in the frontcourt were limited.

Enter Brandon Garrison, who came into the game averaging just 18.8 minutes per outing (seventh-most on the roster) for the ‘Cats across his 14 games played. He saw a season-high 27 minutes against Georgia, finishing with 13 points (also a season-high) on 5-8 shooting, five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks. A lucky bounce aside, he even made his only three-point attempt of the night.

We were treated to the full Garrison experience on Tuesday in Athens — both the good and the bad.

The good? His coast-to-coast euro step finish after picking up a steal was pretty damn impressive. That score cut the game to just a five-point Georgia lead, 55-50. It was the closest Kentucky had been in ages and the closest they would get the rest of the way. He was one of the few players wearing blue who fought for second-chance points. The motor and effort were at least there for most of the contest.

Brandon Garrison got a euro-step in his bag?! pic.twitter.com/9mcuAuInry

— Rare Rookies #BBN (@rarerookies) January 8, 2025

The bad? He turned the ball over four times, one coming off an offensive foul. There were a handful of potential assists where he simply didn’t see (or didn’t want to pass to) his open teammate in time. He missed a clean fastbreak layup. Somto Cyril‘s pure strength and physicality caused him to rethink a handful of possessions, including a couple that could have resulted in points for UK.

Garrison is still clearly a work in progress as a prospect, but we can see the potential. We can also see why he doesn’t regularly play 20-plus minutes. You don’t know exactly what you’re going to get from Garrison on a game-to-game basis, which is part of what makes watching him play so exciting.