A note on Garrett

I know I am not alone in wondering just what the heck is going on with Marcus, and why Self is playing him so much given his limitations on offense. Why not more Cunliffe, for example? One argument is the O still seems to do better with Marcus in than with Sam because the guys that can score get their chances to thanks to better ball movement. But we always come back to Self trusts his defense -- and doesn't trust Sam's -- and the following purloined comment provides a wonderful exposition of just why Self does.

From hank34x on Jayhawkslant:
At 1:37 mark in first half. Baylor moved the ball around, and there was a rebounding gap/lane open under the basket potentially opening Omot up for a lay up. Dok was guarding Clark, quickly recognized (in itself a good play by Dok), and switched to cut off Omot. Garrett quickly recognized, switched to Clark, applied enough pressure to stop a post move, then quickly stepped in front to challenge his dribble, and Clark ended up traveling and turning the ball over. The next possession KU effortlessly executed a set play (which Garrett was a part of setting screen and rotating ball) and got the ball to Dok down low and drew a foul (at least was able to hit 1 free throw). The next possession, Baylor tried to run some funky perimeter handoff between Omot and Clark, Garrett literally guarded both guys couple of moments, cut off Omot's jumper (shooting 40% from 3), forced him to pass to Clark and immediately stepped back in front of Clark and forced a bad/missed shot. He immediately boxed out and Baylor had limited options for rebound, Newman corralled it and got fouled and hit both free throws. On Baylor's last possession of half, he effectively fronted Acuil and cut him off as an option, and then quickly contested McClure's last 3 and appears to have affected the badly missed shot.
In a box score or casual observation of a game, Garrett gets zero mentions there. And, it's not a very sexy stretch (5-1 run). But this is what we should be talking about. In what was ultimately a 3 point win, that was huge. He was singlehandedly responsible for 3 stops, and offense was able to find 3 ways to score. If Cunliffe is in, I think it's at best 3-2 KU in those four possessions, if not worse. Garrett's not perfect and has made many mistakes, but that stretch represented the instincts I've seen from him all year, and why I think he's the perfect compliment to this year's perimeter

If you are a JayhawkSlant subscriber, here is the link to hank34x's comment in response to why Cunliffe is not playing more.