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BB Recruiting

Oklahoma St Transfer, Former McDonald’s All-American Brandon Garrison Commits to Kentucky

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6 months ago

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Oklahoma State Transfer Brandon Garrison commits to Kentucky.
IMAGN/USA Today

While Mark Pope has been focusing on bringing in proven players from the transfer portal, he did say he would be going after McDonald’s All-Americans, aka “Burger Boys”. On Tuesday morning, he got his first one at Kentucky, in Oklahoma State transfer Brandon Garrison, who announced his commitment on social media.

A four-star in the 2023 recruiting class, Garrison elected to stay home and play for Oklahoma State over Kansas, Texas, and Houston. In his freshman season, he started 29 of 32 games and averaged 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks last season. While he was inconsistent, he never stopped working.

“Just 19 years old, he, um… he’s special,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton said of Garrison, choked up after a 20-point breakout game against Baylor back in January. “He just shows up and does his job.”

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“He’s still just scratching the surface of what he can be. He really doesn’t know how good he can be yet, which is probably a good thing, because he doesn’t have a corrupted mind. He’s not in a rush to go somewhere. That’s a big part of the reason he’s been able to get better.”

Even Baylor coach Scott Drew loved what he saw from Garrison. “I loved him out of high school. I saw him play a lot. Loved his motor, loved his intangibles and character,” Drew said.

When Boyton was fired after the season, Garrison entered the transfer portal and a familiar name reached out, new Kentucky associate head coach Alvin Brooks, who was the lead recruiter for Garrison at Baylor. With that connection, he was able to recruit Garrison to Lexington.

Garrison will join a formidable frontcourt of Amari Williams and Andrew Carr, who are more experienced. However, Garrison brings strengths of his own and has NBA upside. One of his biggest strengths is his willingness to learn.

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“His No. 1 thing, he wanted to learn. I was always impressed with his desire to learn and how well he adapted to the things he was learning,” Garrison’s mentor and high school Tommy Griffin said of him.

Scouting Report

Per 247Sports:

“Garrison is not going to wow you with scoring numbers or too many loud dunks. He’s not even overly vocal. But he’s very smart, in all the right spots on both ends of the floor, and should be able to fit right into offensive structure and defensive schemes from day one in college.

He has soft hands, good use of his left, passes well, is poised looking for cutters, and a reliable decision-maker (better than a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio in EYBL). He’s not a shot creator or much of a floor-spacer at this point (although he does have touch to develop), and could better utilize his size and frame inside by getting deeper seals and a higher release point in the lane. But he also doesn’t try to do things he can’t and projects as someone who should be able to play out of dribble handoffs and short rolls at the next level.

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Defensively, it’s not that he is exceptionally mobile, but that he understands coverages and can even utilize his length to show some deceptive switchability, as he did in FIBA play. He shows glimpses of rebounding in traffic, but could do so on a more consistent basis. Physically, he’s very coordinated for his size, gets off his feet fairly well, runs hard, and covers the court with long fluid strides. Overall, you just know what you’re going to get from him, and the overlap of his size and two-way reliability is what makes him such a high-floor prospect.

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BB Recruiting

Malachi Moreno Helping Kentucky Recruit Top 2025 Point Guard

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5 days ago

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October 16, 2024

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Five-star Kentucky commit Malachi Moreno is helping the Wildcats recruit one of the top point guards of the 2025 class Acaden Lewis.
UK Athletics

This past weekend was a big moment for Kentucky basketball, as the first Big Blue Madness of the Mark Pope era took place. In years past, the event has hosted multiple five-star recruits and this year was no different.

While the guest list was smaller due to USA Basketball junior mini camp, the Wildcats had two top recruits in attendance, 2026 five-star Anthony Thompson and 2024 four-star combo guard Acaden Lewis.

The latter is one of Kentucky’s biggest recruiting priorities in the 2025 class and was also on campus for an official visit as he prepares to make his college decision in early November. To help was five-star commit, Malachi Moreno.

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While Moreno couldn’t make it to Big Blue Madness, he was able to meet with Lewis during his visit on Thursday and even took part in his photo shoot, as the pair posed together in Kentucky uniforms in Rupp Arena.

It helps to have a five-star commit just down the road to help recruit. Could we see the pair play together next season at Kentucky? Things are trending in that direction, but time will tell.

Also published on A Sea of Blue.

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BB Recruiting

Mark Pope Hints at Next Basketball Commitment, “Details to Come”

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2 weeks ago

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October 7, 2024

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Kentucky basketball head coach Mark Pope hints at his next commitment, already with a top five class.
Chet White | UK Athletics

When Mark Pope was first hired by Kentucky in April, the biggest concern was if he could recruit. Within weeks, he assembled a staff and recruited the fifth-ranked transfer portal, including the likes of Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams, and Lamont Butler.

Now nearly six months later, Pope has gotten some big high school recruiting victories, receiving commitments from five-star prospects Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson. While early, the Cats currently have a top-five class for 2025 and are the only program with multiple five-star commitments. Still going after multiple top names, the class is far from finished. In fact, another commitment may be on the horizon.

In an interview with the Sources Say Podcast, talking about his recruiting, Pope said that is currently in a chess match for one recruit.

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“Recently, in the fall — I can’t name names, but we’re trying all kinds of different things,” Pope said. “I’m a terrible, terrible chess player, but I love doing it. I do have one intense chess match on the board with a recruit that is for a commitment.”

“We’ll see if that comes to fruition. We’ll see. Details to come.”

Who could this player be? The Wildcats are still pursuing multiple five-star targets, but Pope’s comments are likely about Acaden Lewis or Caleb Wilson.

The former, a four-star combo guard, is expected to make a decision in early November, and will be in town for Big Blue Madness this Friday. The latter, a unanimous top-10 prospect, has been rumored to move his timeline up as well, however, there have been conflicting reports.

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Only time will tell…

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BB Recruiting

Five Star Recruits Hint at Teaming Up at Kentucky

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1 month ago

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September 18, 2024

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2025 five star recruits Caleb Wilson and Acaden Lewis hint at teaming up at Kentucky, joining Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno.
UK Athletics

Top recruiting classes were the norm for Kentucky under John Calipari, but could Mark Pope pick up where his predecessor left off?

Pope’s first order of business as the coach of Kentucky was to assemble a staff and he added two of the best recruiters in the country to the staff in Alvin Brooks III and Jason Hart. Together they’ve already locked down in-state, five-star talents Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno. Currently sitting with the second-ranked class in 2025, Pope and Co have their eyes set on a few more top recruits, including two who are publicly hinting at joining forces in Lexington.

This past weekend, Kentucky hosted top-five target Caleb Wilson and it could not have gone better as they rolled out the carpet for him. Amidst the visit, fellow Wildcat target Acaden Lewis announced his finalists, Kentucky being one of them. To which Wilson replied, “come on over bro.”

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The following day, Wilson posted photos from his visit, to which Lewis commented, “I wanna play w(ith) this guy.”

The most recent interaction came Tuesday night as Wilson and Lewis shared some cryptic emojis.

Recruiting is fluid and young prospects can say a lot of things. However, you have to like this for Kentucky as Wilson and Lewis are expected to make their final decisions this fall. If Pope can get commitments from both, it would be big for recruiting momentum, besting Calipari for Wilson and three other blue-blood schools for Lewis.

Current Kentucky commit Jasper Johnson is even doing his part to recruit them, sending a direct tweet to Wilson.

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