🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Time to give this guy some props for his defense and intangibles on the court so far this year.

His defense on Saturday against Paschall was outstanding. He was locked in. Talked after about the film he watched on how to guard him and its refreshing to see how much detail he put into that matchup. Overall I thought he did as good a job as we could have hoped on him.

We all know his 3 point shots are prayers, he constantly clanks the first free throw at the line and he's struggled finishing on drives but man does this kid compete on both sides. He's a valuable ball handler as we saw when Nova went to a full court press. It's nice to know if Dotson is struggling or in foul trouble that we have a ball handler that can get into the offense. He has great hands and awareness when looking for steals. More importantly we have a guy that can matchup with someone's best scorer 1-4 positions. Great to have.

He scores 1 point but his impact on the game seemed to outweigh what the box score says. Now if the staff could only get that shot fixed..

@BeddieKU23

Spot on. I had high hopes that his shooting would be better since he allegedly spent all Summer improving it. His shot will not improve this season and KU better not let him close to whoever was working with him. Apparently they chose to keep his really bad shooting form intact and just make it more effective when they really should have started from scratch, fixing his shooting form first and then making it more effective.

Agreed. Absolute clinic defensively in the last few games, and I’ve been bitching for years on how when we often get out-rebounded simply because our guys cannot or will not box out. Garrett put on yet another clinic on boxing out Saturday.. he even pushed one guy almost into the under-basket seats.

From KU sports dot com :

“Like Lawson, Self marveled at Garrett’s four steals after the victory, saying, “Everybody will talk about those three (Dotson, Lawson and Vick), but we (also) have Marcus Garrett. The way our guys competed defensively all day was tremendous.”

And:
“Inserted into the starting lineup because of the ankle injury to starting center Udoka Azubuike, Garrett’s ability to play four positions and be this team’s lock-down defender has endeared him to his head coach, who places extreme value on versatility and toughness.

“He’s a good player,” Self said of Garrett. “If he had a consistent (shooting) stroke, he would be our best player; I mean, all-around player. He can play and he’s got fast hands and he’s tough and does all the right things.”

Like all of us, Self would absolutely love for Garrett to get better at being a consistent scorer. But the key line here is “HE DOES ALL THE RIGHT THINGS”. Which means defense, good switching on d, boxing out, rebounding, court positioning, passing, running set plays, and trying to be aggressive offensively when the opportunity presents itself. Which is why he will continue to get playing time to the consternation of some people here who feel that our “higher ceiling” freshmen are not getting enough court time at this point.

On the plus side, Grimes must be getting the message because he is really putting effort into his defense, and looks to be not worrying so much about trying to force shots.
And, As some here have noted, he does remind one a bit of Selden, who stuck around for three years :)

JayHawkFanToo said:

@BeddieKU23

Spot on. I had high hopes that his shooting would be better since he allegedly spent all Summer improving it. His shot will not improve this season and KU better not let him close to whoever was working with him. Apparently they chose to keep his really bad shooting form intact and just make it more effective when they really should have started from scratch, fixing his shooting form first and then making it more effective.

ya your right. - -I like you had heard how hard he had worked on his shot over the Summer , - -just hasn't shown anything on the shot this year , would of been nice.

Just goes to show that very true a kid can still contribute in a lot of different ways for the team. - -Marcus a really good defender , rebounds better then what I had thought , -so he still adds a very important element for us means a lot. - - Mitch is kind of the same way - - -a kid that's not gonna score a lot - -but still contributes in key area's - -the kid just brings his lunch box every game - -every time called upon , - does really well and willing to step in and take charges and at key times in the game at times - - can block the shot better then I ever thought he would. - -So YES there are a lot of ways for guys to contribute in games other then just score -takes a team effort in what ever way works. - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@JayHawkFanToo

He's improved his form at the FT line however he's still going too many trips going 1/2. I'm hopeful by Sr year the shot is serviceable, its certainly still in the infant stages of improvement at this point and no where near where we thought he might be after spending an entire summer working to fix it. We know he works hard and pays attention to details so I wonder how much of it is still a mental thing rather then an actual mechanic issue?

He has been sensational on the defensive end of the floor, he gets his hands on the ball so many times thru out the game. I think he just needs to look to drive the ball more, which isn't easy because the jury is out on sagging off of him and making him shoot jumpers. I don't think he'll ever be a good shooter but I bet he improves to serviceable. It's also early in the season and he could be better, just hasn't shown it yet. If I were Self, I'd tell him to keep shooting the open ones. If he can get a couple to fall, it will open things up in the middle.

@BeddieKU23 Nice job here. Garrett is a perfect fit for certain teams. Not this one though. We need scoring. On the other hand, we aren't getting scoring from Grimes, Moore, KJ, or Lightfoot. And thus can't tell you where we'll get scoring from at the moment. Garrett's non-scoring contributions are undeniable. I love Self's quote from @Bosthawk above -- "He’s a good player,” Self said of Garrett. “If he had a consistent (shooting) stroke, he would be our best player; I mean, all-around player. He can play and he’s got fast hands and he’s tough and does all the right things.” Heck, he can handle the ball some too. But alas, few players are perfect. Mason .. TRob .. Mario. Not many.

Garrett is one major brick mason, though. Kind of like the Joker recognizing the squealer in The Dark Knight ... I know a brick mason when I see one. And that ... that right there ....

Garrett is playing at the top of his game right now and should be commended.

However, for this team to get anywhere close to its ceiling, Quentin Grimes has to play to his talent level. He's playing hard right now, but it's just not happening for him offensively. It seems like every time he's aggressive, he has a 50/50 call go against him, or he has a shot rim out. Credit to him that he's playing hard. At some point, he will break through.

I was thinking he was named Texas Gatorade POY in Dallas his senior year. It is hard to believe that wearing that crown he did so without doing quite a bit of scoring. I know high school to D1 is a big jump, but still.

Since it's going to take some time for Marcus to become a shooter... one thing he can do now is attack the rim. There isn't a rule saying a player has to be thick to attack the iron with aggression. He has enough speed and hops to take it hard to the rack. What he does really need to do NOW is practice FTs!

He should be our best offensive rebounder, too!

He's a perfect fit to go with Dotson and Grimes (and Vick the silent ghost). Sophomore with experience, court-smart, big hands/length and solid handles. He talks. I don't care if he averages 0 points a game, he's worth 10-15 with his defense alone, not to mention leadership.

@DanR Agree. And while Grimes is struggling, it's not like Garrett is taking the place of some great offensive player. Our guard-scoring other than Vick and sometimes Dotson has been pretty bad so you might as well play Marcus.

@Big-Clyde52 HS highlights are of a pretty confident shooter, but his stroke was always released pretty low. He certainly had quick moves that got him open a lot. Maybe his problem now is that he is rushing things by comparison.

@mayjay what I like about those highlights is what Garrett does after he scores. Hustles back on D instead of puffery.

This is going to be an interesting year because we have an elite scorer in Dawson and and an elite defender in Garrett. Probably would need some advanced stats to back that up, but that is my observation for now. This is the first elite defender I can remember us having in a while.

The thing about Garrett versus Grimes is that I often see Garrett make secondary assists or secondary steals, much more than I’ve seen from Grimes. If Grimes isn’t shooting well, which seems to be common, then Garrett is far and away better statistically.

Yes, we need Grimes to shoot well and yes we need shooters. But would I take a shooter over Garrett’s play right now? Probably not. Too many intangibles like the assist at 5 minutes left to go against Nova, numerous forced turnovers, and good box outs. It’s hard to take out a guy who directly or indirectly leads to 5-7 turnovers for the other team.

@mayjay There's a jumpshot hiding in there somewhere. Maybe he should go back to shooting the way he did in high school.

@betterfireE Dawson? ;)