🏀 Marcus Garrett Named to Wooden Award Preseason Top 50

LOS ANGELES – Kansas senior Marcus Garrett has collected another preseason accolade as he has been named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Tuesday on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for one of the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team and Most Outstanding Player Award.

Garrett is vying to become the third Jayhawk to win the John R. Wooden Award, joining Danny Manning in 1988 and Frank Mason III in 2017.

Garrett has received numerous preseason honors heading into the 2020-21 season. Besides the Wooden Preseason Top 50, the Dallas guard is on the NABC Player of the Year Watch List, the Naismith Player of the Year Trophy Watch List, The Athletic top 20 guards for 2020-21 and he received votes when the Associated Press named its preseason All-America team. Additionally, Garrett is on the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award Watch List and was a unanimous Preseason All-Big 12 selection.

Through two games in 2020-21 for No. 7 Kansas, Garrett is averaging 13.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and is tied for the team lead with five assists and two steals. He scored 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting against No. 1 Gonzaga on Nov. 26.

Garrett was the 2020 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year last season. As a junior, he led the Big 12 in assists (4.6) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.7) and also ranked among the league leaders in steals (fifth at 1.8). Garrett averaged 4.5 deflections per game, including 6.9 in his last nine outings in 2019-20.

For the season, Garrett produced 9.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He was the 2020 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, USBWA All-District VI, All-Big 12 Second Team and a unanimous Big 12 All-Defensive Team selection.