Brandon Garrison saved his best game for his Oklahoma homecoming: "He was elite."

Brandon Garrison saved his best game of the season for his Oklahoma homecoming. An Oklahoma City native, Garrison grew up 25 minutes from the University of Oklahoma and spent his freshman year at Oklahoma State, the Sooners’ rival. Now a Kentucky Wildcat, Garrison was one of the stars in Kentucky’s win in Norman in front of friends and family, including his young son.

Brandon Garrison brought his son with him to the post game press conference. pic.twitter.com/uram11xlke

— Adam Stratton (@AdamStrattonKSR) February 27, 2025

“It’s just always good to come back home and play in front of the crowd,” Garrison said in the postgame press conference. “I’ve got a lot of fam out there. My son came out. So it was just good. I’m just glad I got the dub back home.”

Garrison was Kentucky’s second-leading scorer behind Otega Oweh’s 28-point heroics. UK’s sophomore big man scored 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field, including a career-high two 3-pointers. Garrison was the only Wildcat with multiple 3s.

Defensively, Garrison made a big jump in the second half, showing his versatility by guarding multiple positions, and blocking the final shot of the game. He also had one of his best sequences of the year early in the second half when he blocked Jeremiah Fears on one end, then ran the floor for a score through contact on the other.

Garrison finished with three blocks and a career-high three steals while matching his season-high in minutes with 27. He ducked one beer can, too.

Mark Pope: “He was elite defensively.”

After the game, Mark Pope commented on Garrison’s defense, calling his performance “elite.” Pope told Tom Leach that Kentucky did a lot of switching one through five and one through four, and Garrison was up to the challenge.

“I thought he was elite defensively,” said Pope. “He was getting switched on Fears; he might’ve guarded Fears better than anybody else. He has a really, really high ceiling, so it’s been fun so far this year to watch him grow, and he’s still got so much more growth in him.”

An emotional, chippy night

The story of Brandon Garrison’s homecoming can’t be told without mentioning his emotions in the end. After Garrison made the game-clinching block, he confronted Fears as time expired. Amari Williams quickly stepped in to push Garrison away before the face-to-face escalated any further. Still, the officials reviewed Garrison’s actions on the monitor to see if anything warranted a technical foul or occurred before the buzzer sounded.

Garrison explained, “Just me being back home, they tried to get up under my skin from right when I got in the game. But, you know, things got a little chippy at the end. But, you know, it’s just basketball, nothing more, nothing less. It’s just part of it.

“My emotions got a little high when I got the block and realized we got the win.”