[Sidelined for last Friday’s showdown with No. 5 Tennessee in the title game of the NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn, N.Y.,][1] Kansas sophomore Marcus Garrett is on his way back.
But he’s not there yet.
Speaking to a live audience during Tuesday’s “Hawk Talk” radio show at Johnny’s West in Lawrence, KU coach Bill Self provided an update on Garrett’s status after the Dallas native was held out of KU’s win over Tennessee because of concussion-like symptoms he experienced leading up to Friday’s game.
“Well, he’s with us, and certainly you look at him, you think he could play,” Self said Tuesday night. “But he’s still having some headaches and dizziness and so he actually hasn’t done much.”
Outside of some limited drill work during the past couple of days, Garrett has not practiced at all following the Jayhawks’ return to Lawrence last Sunday.
And with the team slated for its second practice of the day at 8 p.m. Tuesday — the KU coach said Tuesday’s second session (the second time that’s happened in a week) wasn’t exactly punishment, more an emphasis on making sure the required work gets done — Self said he expected it to stay that way for at least the next day or so.
“As long as he’s still feeling a little bit of dizziness or whatever, we don’t play until Saturday so there’s no reason to put him out there and risk him getting hit again,” Self said.
With or without Garrett, the second-ranked Jayhawks will return to action at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, when they play host to Stanford at Allen Fieldhouse.
It marks the third year in a row that the Jayhawks have faced Stanford on their schedule. And it will be the second return to Allen Fieldhouse for former KU guard and current Stanford head coach Jerod Haase, who was cheered adoringly by the home crowd when Stanford came to town in 2016.
Self said he hopes the KU crowd again will shower Haase with love on Saturday.
As for Garrett’s status, Self said it was very likely that Garrett did suffer a mild concussion, though noting that it was’t “very, very serious,” and he praised team doctors for their handling of the situation.
Since his early days as a head coach back at Tulsa and throughout his career at Kansas, Self has taken concussions very seriously any time a situation like this surfaced.
“I don’t know if people remember Zach Peters,” recalled Self of the former KU player who never lasted just part of one season. “He never really got started for us strictly because of concussions. I had two players at Tulsa whose careers were ended by concussions — I mean their career — because they had got so many in a short amount of time. We don’t think there’s any problems with Marcus, at least the medical staff (doesn’t) in doing all the tests. This is more precautionary than anything.”
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2018/nov/23/notebook-marcus-garrett-misses-game-against-no-5-t/?mens_basketball
