Starting center from Big 12 is the latest transfer pickup for Mark Pope and UK basketball

Mark Pope has landed his fifth NCAA transfer portal player of the offseason.

On Tuesday, former Oklahoma State center Brandon Garrison committed to and signed with Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats.

Garrison (6-11, 245 pounds) becomes the seventh confirmed player for Pope’s first UK basketball roster for the 2024-25 season.

The others?

First-year guards Collin Chandler and Travis Perry, third-year guard Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), fifth-year guard Lamont Butler (San Diego State) and fifth-year forwards Amari Williams (Drexel) and Andrew Carr (Delaware and Wake Forest).

As a freshman last season at Oklahoma State, Garrison played in 32 games and made 29 starts for the Cowboys. He averaged 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds, along with 1.5 assists and 1.5 blocks. Garrison had 47 total blocks last season.

He has three years of eligibility remaining.

Garrison’s offensive performance last season was highlighted by a 21-point outing against Pope’s BYU team and a 20-point outing against Baylor. New Kentucky basketball associate head coach Alvin Brooks III was formerly on the Baylor coaching staff.

Overall, Garrison’s offensive game improved during conference play. He averaged 9.9 points against Big 12 opponents and scored at least 20 points on three occasions.

According to KenPom, Garrison had the league’s highest free-throw rate during conference play at 71.6.

Garrison’s block percentage of 6.6% ranked 84th nationally last season, according to KenPom. Garrison’s defensive rebounding percentage (20.5%) and his two-point shooting percentage (57.2%) were also among the best marks nationally in those categories.

Garrison didn’t attempt a 3-point shot last season and made 59 of his 91 free-throw attempts (64.8%).

He averaged more than 22 minutes played per game for Oklahoma State. The Cowboys went 12-20 overall last season and parted ways this offseason with former head coach Mike Boynton, who is now on staff at Michigan.

“I saw Brandon Garrison get better from the beginning of the year to the end,” Boynton said after Oklahoma State’s season ended with a Big 12 Conference Tournament loss to Central Florida in March.

Garrison entered the transfer portal on March 18, less than a week after Boynton was fired. Oklahoma State hired former Western Kentucky head coach Steve Lutz to take over the program on April 1.

Garrison didn’t come to Lexington for a recruiting visit prior to committing to the Wildcats. He did take recruiting visits in April to Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

According to college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, Garrison is the No. 73 overall transfer portal player, as of Tuesday morning.

Garrison was originally a four-star recruit and the No. 36 overall player in the 2023 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite. He was an in-state recruit for Oklahoma State, having attended Del City High School which is located just an hour from the Oklahoma State campus.

Garrison originally picked Oklahoma State from a list of schools that also included Arkansas, Kansas and Texas.

Garrison was a 2023 McDonald’s All-American. He scored 10 points in last year’s McDonald’s All-American Game, where he shared the floor with four future UK players: Aaron Bradshaw, Justin Edwards, Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner.

“Brandon’s a McDonald’s All-American and a FIBA U-18 Americas gold medalist with Team USA who crushed me at BYU last year and crushed coach (Alvin) Brooks at Baylor last year,” Pope said in a Tuesday afternoon news release announcing the addition of Garrison. “We’re unbelievably glad he’s on our team now. He’s an incredible person with a brilliant, joyful smile that BBN will fall in love with. We’re really excited about our front line and Brandon will be a key piece to it.”

None of those four players will be teammates of Garrison’s in Lexington as Pope, previously the head coach at BYU and Utah Valley, constructs a UK basketball roster from scratch.

Bradshaw (Ohio State), Joey Hart (Ball State) and Zvonimir Ivisic (Arkansas) are players from the 2023-24 Kentucky squad that will transfer to new schools. Additionally, Jordan Burks, Ugonna Onyenso, Adou Thiero and Wagner are still in the NCAA transfer portal.

Thiero has a return to Kentucky among his final five options. The other schools on his list are Arkansas (where he’d rejoin Calipari), Indiana, North Carolina and Pittsburgh.

Also from last season’s team, Rob Dillingham, Edwards and Sheppard have declared for the 2024 NBA draft. Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves have exhausted their college eligibility.

College basketball players (including graduate transfers) have until May 1 to enter the transfer portal. The early-entry deadline for the 2024 NBA draft was April 27, and players who enter the draft with remaining NCAA eligibility will have until May 29 to remove their names from consideration and return to school.