Kansas basketball: Marcus Garrett due for All-American senior season

Kansas basketball’s Marcus Garrett will likely be back for his senior year. Here’s what to expect from the defensive guru for the 2020-21 season.

One of Kansas basketball’s most important pieces from last season will almost certainly be back for his senior year. Marcus Garrett led the Jayhawks in assists last season while also averaging 9.2 points and 1.8 steals per game. Those stats were good enough to earn Garrett an All-Big 12 Third Team selection, but that wasn’t his only accolade.

He also earned the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Award, as well as the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Award. Suffice to say, Garrett’s ability to play defense is second to none.

Next season, it’s virtually guaranteed that Garrett will start as one of the Jayhawks’ guards. While Garrett is still seen by many as a defense-only kind of player, expect that to change next season. Garrett will likely become more of a focal point in the offense, not the focal point, but a bigger part than he was last season.

Think about it, Garrett led the Jayhawks in assists last season with 4.6 per game while only turning the ball over 1.7 times per game. He wasn’t even the team’s primary ball-handler either, so that number of assists per game could rise significantly.

In addition to being a great distributor, Garrett can score. He dropped 24 points on six three-pointers against Oklahoma last season, and he also put up 18 in the Jayhawks’ overtime win over Dayton. He was pretty average in terms of percentage, shooting a mediocre 44.2 percent from the field with a three-point percentage of 32.7 percent.

One of the noticeable improvements Garrett made to his game last season was his ability to get to the rim. If Garrett can bump up his three-point shooting just a little bit, it’d help get him an advantage over defenders on the perimeter, increasing his chances of getting a layup.

At this point, if Garrett goes from average to good on offense, he should be an All-American next season. Combining his phenomenal defense with effective scoring would make analysts gush about his value and he’d be a significant problem for opposing coaches.

Not only that, but if Garrett is also dishing out five or six assists per game with only a turnover or two he’d be one of the best players in the nation, and no longer just a “glue guy.”

Garrett has the most experience out of any player on the team, playing all four years of college and in a Final Four. In short, he’ll be Kansas basketball’s floor general next season on both offense and defense, and possibly an All-American too.