Marcus Garrett named Naismith Defensive Player of the Year

Marcus Garrett named Naismith Defensive Player of the Year

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DiDi Richards and Marcus Garrett Named 2020 Naismith Defensive Players of the Year

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Here's the article from the LJW by Tait. I excerpted the last part of the article which I really enjoyed...particularly the last line which was a great quote by Enaruna about Marcus.

While former KU great Mario Chalmers often gets mention as the best defensive player to play for Self, the KU coach recently explained why Chalmers and Garrett were in different categories.

“Mario was the best at stealing the ball,” Self said on The Jayhawker. “Better than Marcus. He was by far the best. But we always put Mario on the other team’s worst player because we knew he couldn’t guard the best one and we knew he wouldn’t be disciplined enough to stay connected to him, so (we) put him on the worst so he could just run around and take everybody’s ball.”

That was never the case for Garrett, who almost exclusively guarded the opposing team’s best player, whether he was 6-foot-10 or a lightning-quick point guard.

“I remember somebody asking (KU freshman) Tristan (Enaruna), ‘What’s the scouting report on Marcus Garrett if you’re the other team,’” Self began. “He said, ‘Don’t ever dribble it when he’s guarding you.’”

www2.kusports.com/news/2020/apr/01/ku-ju...naismith-defensive-/

www2.ljworld.com/sports/ku-mens-basketba...reputation-lockdown/

Great stories of Garrett always playing up, age wise, and his focus on defense.