Brandon Garrison is coming back to Kentucky, a boost for Mark Pope’s frontcourt.
Brandon Garrison put an end to speculation over his basketball future. “I’m back,” said the post on Garrison’s Instagram account, which included a series of video highlights from his first season at Kentucky. The past couple of weeks had been filled with doubts over whether he’d be back in Lexington for a second one. Garrison was the only post player from Mark Pope’s first UK roster with remaining eligibility, but as the Wildcats’ coaching staff kept adding frontcourt reinforcements via the transfer portal, the rumors regarding Garrison’s possible exit from the program persisted. Instead, the high-upside big man will be back with the Cats for the 2025-26 season. Garrison, who operated primarily as the backup to fifth-year center Amari Williams on the 2024-25 roster, projects to step into a possible starting role at Kentucky, which will lose Williams and power forwards Andrew Carr and Ansley Almonor this offseason. Garrison, a sophomore this past season, has two years of NCAA eligibility left. Kentucky’s coaching staff has spent a good deal of time and energy looking for talented frontcourt players in the transfer portal to play alongside him next season. As a result, the Cats appear to be stacked in the paint. So far, UK has landed 6-foot-10 post player Jayden Quaintance — projected as a future NBA lottery pick — as well as 6-7 forward Mouhamed Dioubate and 6-8 wing Kam Williams to bolster the team’s length and physicality out of the portal. A few hours before Garrison announced his return Saturday, the Wildcats also landed a commitment from Croatian forward Andrija Jelavic, 6-11 player who averaged 10.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in the Adriatic League this past season. Jelavic, who is capable of playing on the perimeter, will turn 21 years old next month and has been viewed as a possible NBA draft pick in the future. And Kentucky will also be bringing in McDonald’s All-American center Malachi Moreno — the state’s Mr. Basketball and the MVP of the Sweet 16 this past season — for additional frontcourt depth on the 2025-26 roster. Kentucky forward Brandon Garrison averaged 5.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 17.3 minutes per game for the Wildcats this past season. Ryan C. Hermens rhermens@herald-leader.com Even though UK’s coaches have been busy in the transfer portal, Pope spoke highly of Garrison and his developmental path over the course of the 2024-25 season. He averaged 5.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 17.3 minutes per game in his first year in Lexington, coming off the bench in all 35 of his appearances for the Wildcats. Garrison — a former McDonald’s All-American from the Oklahoma City area — started 29 of 32 games for Oklahoma State as a freshman, though the Cowboys went 12-20 that season. He came to Kentucky with the knowledge that Williams was likely to be the team’s starting center, joining the UK roster as an understudy, of sorts, with the expectation of jumping into a larger role on Pope’s team down the road. While Garrison did show signs of improvement over the course of the season, he struggled with consistency. In Kentucky’s final game — a loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament — the sophomore big man tallied three points, one rebound and one assist in 18 minutes. But there were definite signs of progress. Garrison, who attempted zero 3-point shots at Oklahoma State, went 12-for-40 in his first season playing within Pope’s five-out offense. That’s not a great rate (30%) but Garrison projects to improve as an outside shooter with more experience. He also showed flashes of the passing skill that Pope covets in his big men, and his physicality will be needed in the SEC. Following UK’s loss to Tennessee in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament, Garrison said he would huddle with his family and his agent before making a decision on next steps in his basketball career. He also made clear that night that he felt Kentucky was on the path to even more success in the future. “It’s going in the right direction,” he said of Pope’s program. “I feel like everybody doubted us going into this, so I feel like we opened up a lot of eyes.”
