KSR Today: Brandon Garrison commits, Great Osobor update, and a football visitor
Good morning, folks! And a happy May 1st to everyone in the Big Blue Nation. We’re now just three days away from being able to make a Star Wars joke and four days away from a free excuse for margaritas. Springtime is awesome.
You know what else is awesome? Getting a “Boom” tweet from Cody Fueger followed up by a commitment from Oklahoma State transfer center Brandon Garrison, which is exactly what happened on Tuesday morning. A former McDonald’s All-American, the 6-foot-11 big rising sophomore averaged 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.5 blocks per game this season for Oklahoma State while shooting 57.2 percent from the floor.
Garrison’s commitment to Kentucky was a shock, but he was instantly welcomed by the fanbase. KSR’s Brandon Ramsey already has a Film Room breakdown of everything Garrison will bring to Lexington, if you’re interested.
“Brandon’s a McDonald’s All-American and a FIBA U18 Americas gold medalist with Team USA who crushed me at BYU last year and crushed Coach [Alvin] Brooks at Baylor last year,” Head coach Mark Pope said of Garrison in UK’s press release. “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.”
Fueger, one of Pope’s assistants on staff, has started a trend of sending out GIFs on social media as commitment teasers and the BBN absolutely loves it. We’re already jonesing for the next one. Could that be Dayton transfer guard Koby Brea, who was still on his visit to Kentucky as of last night? What about Utah State transfer forward Great Osobor, who was also with Brea last night?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like Pope is going to be able to land them both. KSR’s Matt Jones dropped some intel on KSBoard last night that you’ll want to check out.
If you’re itching for even more roster talk, the Sources Say crew of KSR’s Jack Pilgrim and Go Big Blue Country’s Shawn Smith have you covered. They went live last night to talk about the Garrison addition, the possibility of bringing Brea on board, and much more. You can watch the full episode below or wherever you find your podcasts.
KSR’s updated roster tracker
With every new commitment comes a fresh roster tracker update. Admittedly, the list of targets is shrinking, but the transfer portal always has a couple of surprises up its sleeve. If Pope and Co. can haul in a few of the top targets left on the Big Board, Kentucky fans should still be feeling good about the 2024-25 season.
Today also marks the final day that the transfer portal window is open. Outside of some expectations, the majority of players will have to enter their names into the portal by midnight. We’ll likely see some more big names jump in between now and then. There are currently over 1,800 names in the portal.
Is Wooga Poplar a name to monitor?
It certainly sounds like it.
According to Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog, Miami (FL) transfer guard Wooga Poplar will “probably visit” the Wildcats after hearing from the coaching staff. Zagoria adds that Poplar’s father said “they want him” in reference to Kentucky. Arkansas (John Calipari) and St. John’s (Rick Pitino) are also reportedly in the mix.
As a junior at Miami (FL) in 2023-24, Poplar averaged 13.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 31.1 minutes per game. The 6-foot-5 guard started all 29 games for the Hurricanes while shooting 42.6 percent from the field, 38.5 percent from deep (5.6 attempts per game), and 86.4 percent from the line.
Poplar is ranked No. 28 overall in On3’s transfer portal rankings and will have one year of eligibility remaining.
How about an important football visitor?
With Mark Stoops’ program, the transfer portal is still active. A name to watch is Division II Grand Valley State’s Jay’viar Suggs, a 6-foot-3, 295-pound defensive lineman who has been hauling in dozens of offers since entering his name into the portal on April 21 — 39 of them, to be exact.
Kentucky is among the schools to have reached out, but more notably, the Wildcats will be bringing him to campus starting today, according to Jacob Polacheck of KSR+. Suggs is coming off a recent trip to Arkansas and has one scheduled for Florida State this weekend.
Last year Suggs tallied 21 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 5.0 sacks, and a forced fumble. A graduate transfer, he’ll have two years of eligibility remaining.
Got thoughts? Continue the conversation on KSBoard, the KSR Message Board. New members can try 1 month for $1.
Tyrese Maxey, don’t hurt ’em
Tyrese Maxey is bad, bad man. The NBA’s Most Improved Player took the Philadelphia 76ers into Madison Square Garden last night for a win-or-go-home matchup with the New York Knicks. Philly trailed the series 3-1 and was on the brink of elimination against a rocking road atmosphere.
So what did Maxey do? Just casually drop 46 points, including seven points in the final 30 seconds to bring the Sixers back from down six to force overtime. Maxey first hit a triple that he was fouled on with 25 seconds in regulation, making the free throw. After the Knicks made one freebie on the other end, Maxey came down and fired up a prayer from the logo that hit nothing but net with 8.1 seconds left to knot the score at 97-97.
The 76ers won the overtime period 15-9 to steal the 112-106 Game 5 victory, forcing a Game 6 back in Philly. Maxey finished his night with 46 points, nine assists, and five rebounds in 52 minutes. He shot 17-30 overall and 7-12 from beyond the arc. As we like to say in the industry: that’s pretty good.
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard