Kentucky standout Brandon Garrison announces return to Mark Pope's squad with electrifying montage

With the transfer portal open, there were concerns from Kentucky Wildcats fans that standout forward Brandon Garrison would not be returning to the team. It would have been understandable for the sophomore to transfer to a different school considering the Wildcats made two front-court additions in the portal in Mo Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance.

However, Garrison posted an Instagram reel on Saturday confirming that he will return to Mark Pope's Kentucky squad next season. In the video, he shared several of his highlights with a musical backdrop.

Early in the clip, a short caption appeared, confirming his return:

"I'm staying home."

Garrison posted the video on Instagram with the hashtag:

"Unfinished business."

If Brandon Garrison were to enter the transfer portal this offseason, it would have been for the second year in a row. This time last year, Garrison entered the transfer portal as a member of the Oklahoma State Cowboys and ultimately decided to join the Kentucky Wildcats.

Garrison had a big role as a freshman at Oklahoma State, starting in 29 of his 32 appearances. However, he had the desire to play for a more prestigious program and transferred to Kentucky.

In his first season with the Wildcats, Garrison appeared in 35 games but did not start in any of them. As a result, his minutes were reduced from 22.6 per game at Oklahoma State to 17.3 per game at Kentucky. This caused his point-per-game average to drop from 7.5 to 5.9.

Brandon Garrison will likely be part of one of the best frontcourts in the SEC next season

By returning to the Kentucky Wildcats next season, Brandon Garrison is making it even more likely that they will have one of the best frontcourts in the SEC.

The Wildcats made two major frontcourt additions in the transfer portal this offseason, bringing in Arizona State's Jayden Quaintance and Alabama's Mouhamed Dioubate. Quaintance is a freshman who averaged 9.4 points per game last season, and Dioubate is a sophomore who averaged 7.2 points per contest. Both players are expected to compete with Garrison for a starting job.

Additionally, the team added two significant forward recruits. Four-star Malachi Moreno has been committed to Kentucky since August and will join the team next season. The Wildcats also added a top European prospect, power forward Andrija Jelavic, to their roster. As a result, Brandon Garrison will have a lot of competition next season as he tries to win a starting job.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by R. Elahi