There may not be a single player on this roster who has been as heavily scrutinized as Brandon Garrison. If you search his name on social media right now, you will find a backlog of takes that would make anyone blush, after a huge slew of positive comments from today. Fans and media members have constantly questioned the young man's effort, inspected his mentality, and loudly debated his value to the program.
It reached a boiling point earlier this season. After a frustrating turnover where Garrison failed to hustle back on defense, Mark Pope called a timeout and delivered a screaming session rarely seen from the Wildcats' head coach. Garrison was benched and did not re-enter the game. Following that incident, a KSR host took to the airwaves and bluntly stated that he didn't care if Brandon Garrison ever played another game for Kentucky.
Well, after what happened in St. Louis on Friday, that tune has definitively changed.
The ultimate NCAA Tournament redemption
Make no mistake about it: Kentucky's survival does not happen without Brandon Garrison. Yes, the Oweh 3 sent it to OT, but if Garrison were not in Lexington, the Cats would be on their way back home. They are packing their bags and making the five-hour drive back to Lexington tonight if the junior big man didn't just deliver one of the best performances of his entire career.
Santa Clara threw absolutely everything they had at Kentucky. They played with a swagger and confidence all night long, and why shouldn't they? They were the trendy upset pick across the country, armed with a highly efficient offense. But Herb Sendek's squad didn't have an answer for a fully engaged Brandon Garrison.
And that is the key, Brandon Garrison has to be engaged.
While he has been inconsistent since that infamous benching, he absorbed Mark Pope's hard coaching. When the bright lights of March Madness turned on, today was unequivocally his day.
A defensive masterclass in the clutch
Garrison anchored the interior, finishing with 10 points (5-of-6 from the floor), 7 critical rebounds, and a staggering 6 blocks.
And his true value shone the brightest when the season was looking to be at its darkest. When the game was on the line late in the second half, Garrison was forced to switch onto Santa Clara's lethal perimeter threat, Sash Gavalyugov, who had already drained four threes on the day. Instead of getting exposed in space, Garrison moved his feet and blocked Gavalyugov twice from deep down the stretch.
The sequence was poetic. Garrison secured the block, ran the floor, and hammered home a dunk that gave Kentucky the final cushion it desperately needed to see out a win.
The blessing and the curse
It was an incredible, emotional moment to watch a kid who has struggled to meet his own massive expectations finally play the game of his life in a win-or-go-home situation.
That is the ultimate curse of the Brandon Garrison experience.
He might step onto the floor tomorrow and play a horrible game as he did in the SEC Tournament against Florida, 0 points and 1 rebound. But for one afternoon in St. Louis, the entire Big Blue Nation got to witness the absolute blessing of his potential.