Marcus Garrett leads Kansas on Senior Night as Jayhawks send Baylor to its first loss
Marcus Garrett walked slowly off James Naismith Court into the arms of Kansas coach Bill Self with 6.8 seconds left in the No. 17-ranked Jayhawks’ 71-58 victory over the previously undefeated, No. 2-ranked Baylor Bears on Saturday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
Coach and player had a hearty embrace after Garrett exited the game — and received a curtain call — at the tail end of KU’s 38th consecutive Senior Night victory — a win made possible in large part because of senior point guard Garrett, who scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds with two assists in 35 grueling minutes.
“What you saw tonight in guarding a first-team All-American,” Self told the 2,500 fans who watched the game and stuck around for Garrett’s postgame Senior Night speech, “was textbook in what this guy means to the University of Kansas.
“He’s the best defensive player in America,” Self added before passing the microphone to 6-foot-5 Dallas native Garrett, the man most responsible for holding Baylor junior standout guard Jared Butler to five points on 2-of-9 shooting (1 of 7 on three-pointers) in 30 minutes.
Butler scored 30 points in Baylor’s 77-69 win over KU on Jan. 18 in Waco, Texas.
“It’s kind of hard to put into words how much he means to me, how much I respect him as a coach and as a man,” Garrett said of Self. “It was indescribable. It felt great,” he added of the hug at the end of a huge win for KU (18-8, 12-6 Big 12). Baylor fell to 18-1 overall and 10-1 in the league.
“He knows how much I love him and how much he means to me,” Garrett added of Self.
Garrett — who was joined by David McCormack (20 points, three rebounds) and Christian Braun (11 points, nine boards) as double-digit point producers — said he heard the fans chant “one more year” during his speech.
“It sounded pretty good,” said Garrett, who is expected to pursue a pro career after this season.
Self has said the door is open for Garrett to return to school, however, if he wishes to play a fifth year for the Jayhawks. The NCAA has granted all Division I players another year of eligibility in response to this pandemic-plagued season.
“Running out there we knew it was coming,” Garrett said of an energized crowd. Just 2,500 fans have been allowed in the fieldhouse for games during the pandemic. Some nights have been louder than others — Saturday was probably the loudest it has been all season.
“We were saying, ‘Yeah they are ready for today’s game.‘ They gave us energy. We know they want it so badly. It’s an extra boost for us,” he added of fan support.
The Jayhawks responded in not only holding Butler to five points, but Baylor as a team to 58 points on 34.8% shooting from the field. The Bears hit 6 of 26 threes to KU’s 3 of 16. KU, which received 14 boards from Jalen Wilson , out-rebounded Baylor 48-28.
“We knew we had to guard to win the game,” Garrett said. “We were locked in. We put it to them. We knew we had to rebound and defend to beat them.”
Of Garrett’s defense on Butler, Self told the media: “He sat down in the stance (in front of Butler in the halfcourt). It looked different tonight, different in the way he was turned up. He’s not going to win the award (Naismith defensive player of the year which he won last year), but if you have got to have somebody go lock somebody up, I still think he is the guy.”
McCormack, who credited backup big man Mitch Lightfoot for yeoman work (four points, four boards, one block in 13 minutes), had the defensive play of the game.
He skied to solidly block the shot of MaCio Teague (18 points, eight boards) with 1 minute, 15 seconds to play.
The ball sailed into the stands following the clean, solid rejection.
“Ochai (Agbaji, seven points four assists, three boards) was guarding the baseline. I saw him get beat a half step. I said, ‘This is the moment I need to send this to the third row,’’’ McCormack said, smiling. “Whatever I can to send it out. The exclamation point was the stare down, telling him to get it out of here,” McCormack added. “Nothing was coming easy even at the end of the game.”
McCormack, who hit 8 of 10 shots and was 4 of 4 from the line, said his motivation was simple on Saturday.
“Playing for the man next to us,:” he said of senior Garrett. “I was really just playing for Marcus. It was his night, and I left it on the court for him.”
KU is set to meet UTEP at 7 p.m. Thursday in Allen Fieldhouse in a game added to the schedule to replace the KU-Tarleton State game that was called off in December because of COVID-19 protocols in Tarleton’s program. The Big 12 Tournament is March 10-13 at T-Mobile Center.
This story was originally published February 27, 2021 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Marcus Garrett leads Kansas on Senior Night as Jayhawks send Baylor to its first loss."
