Call it mother’s intuition. Toni Weatherall can’t make it to every Kentucky home game – she lives in Oklahoma City, after all – but something told her she needed to be in Lexington the second week of December for her son, Brandon Garrison. As has become routine over the past year and a half, Weatherall and her grandson, two-year-old Akarii, packed up and made the long trek from Oklahoma to Kentucky with no idea of the highs and lows to come.
It started on Tuesday. About 12 minutes into Kentucky’s game vs. NC Central, Garrison caught a pass from Denzel Aberdeen at the top of the key. While spinning toward the basket, Garrison had the ball stripped by an NC Central defender, who threw it ahead to a teammate, Kyric Davis. Instead of sprinting after him, Garrison just jogged down the court as Davis slammed it home to bring NC Central within eight.
There was nothing leisurely about Mark Pope’s reaction. Pope quickly called a timeout and strode toward Garrison on the court, yelling for the junior big man to “Go sit down.” When he did, Pope was in his face, a butt-chewing that everyone at home got to see as well as those at Rupp Arena. The SEC Network showed the interaction coming in and out of the commercial break, but failed to capture the white-hot moment when Pope broke a clipboard in the huddle.
“Breaking the clipboard, I was like, whoa,” Weatherall told KSR. “Now that was a bit extreme! We have to kind of manage our emotions, our emotional intelligence, and just kind of take it a step back. But on the other hand, you know, my son jogged down the court so I could see where Pope’s frustration stemmed from when that happened.”
Garrison did not play the rest of the game. As Pope put it, he had broken one of his cardinal rules. Afterward, Weatherall didn’t press her son too hard for details on what happened or how he was feeling. She was just grateful that she, and especially Akarii, were there.
“I always say things are done on God’s timing, and I feel like that was the right timing for when that happened, because we just never know. And I just, for some reason, I felt like the day was off. And then when I went to the game, I was like, something is still not settling well with me. And I was like, Okay, this, this happened at the right moment, and I’m glad Akarii was there to take his mind off of it.
“Akarii is his world. I mean, he is his everything. He is Akarii’s superhero.”
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Photos of Brandon Garrison courtesy of Toni Weatherall
Brandon Garrison has known since he was eight years old that he wanted to be a basketball player. Growing up in Oklahoma City, he also played football and rode horses – Weatherall’s ex-husband was a rodeo rider, which fostered Garrison’s love of riding – but when his mom signed him up for a YMCA team, he knew he’d found his calling. It’s a moment Weatherall reminds her son of quite often, even after Mark Pope benched him.
“I said, this is just the beginning. We have a finish line to cross. I said, you told me when you were eight years old that you wanted to play basketball, and you said, ‘Mommy, whenever I make it to the NBA, I’m going to buy you a house.’ And I was like, I don’t want a house. I just want y’all to be happy. But you know, you have to put that work in.”
Garrison did, becoming a star player at Del City High School, leading the school to the Oklahoma 5A state title in 2021 and 2023, and a runner-up finish in 2022. As a senior, he averaged a double-double and started every game, save one. Garrison’s coach took him out of the starting lineup for being late to practice, which led to his family and friends wondering what had happened as the introductions took place, and he was still on the bench.
It was an embarrassing moment, but Garrison responded to it, leading Del City to another state title, scoring 17 points and pulling down 16 rebounds in the championship game. He had plenty of individual accolades as well, winning every award in Oklahoma and being named to the Jordan Brand Classic game and McDonald’s All-American Game. In turn, he had plenty of big-time Division I offers. Garrison chose to stay close to home, committing to Oklahoma State over Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and others.
Del Ctiy’s Brandon Garrison dunks the ball in the second half during the Class 5A boys state basketball semifinal game between Del City and Carl Albert at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Friday, March, 11, 2022 – © SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK
Just a few months after arriving in Stillwater, Garrison was thrown a curveball when he found out that his girlfriend was pregnant. She was due in October, the month before his freshman season officially tipped off. He was just 19 years old.
“It was a lot,” Garrison told KSR. “I really didn’t tell my parents yet, just because it was a lot. I didn’t know how to tell them. So I eventually got out of that stage, let them know, and it was easier than I thought. My mom, she was very open, and she told me I should have told her [earlier], obviously, but you know, I’m still young, with a lot happening, and I just found out that news. But as soon as I told her, it was kind of, you know, settled, chill, and she just helped me through the process.”
Weatherall had her first child when she was 22 years old, so she knew some of what her son was going through.
“Whenever I found out he was expecting, I said, regardless of you expecting, you’re still going to go to college, and you’re going to pursue your dream. Point blank. Nothing’s going to change, but I will be here every step of the way.”
When it was time for Akarii to come into the world, Garrison was at practice. His coach, Mike Boynton, pushed him out the door when he heard the news.
“I rushed up there. I was able to be up there when he was born and stuff, so I was happy about that, but it was just crazy, just knowing, like, he’s actually here now. I’m a dad, and it just hit a little different just being there, seeing him and knowing he’s mine.”
Life just got crazier as Garrison tried to adapt to being both a father and a Division I college basketball player. Boynton played a big part. He also had kids when he was young, so he knew what it was like. Nothing, however, prepares you for diaper blowouts or the middle-of-the-night feedings. Or, when you can’t be there, the heartache and constant anxiety.
“It was a lot, just because, like, we’ll have early practice, and he’s newborn, so he’ll wake up out of nowhere, you know, crying for milk, or needing his diaper changed or something. So it was a lot, but I kind of got used to it, when it kept happening, so I didn’t try to let it bother me. But for sure, the first couple of times it was a lot. I was getting a little irritated, but it’s just part of fatherhood.”
Brandon Garrison and his family – Photo courtesy of Toni Weatherall
Garrison and Akarii’s mother eventually found a balance. Stillwater and Oklahoma City are just an hour apart by car, a drive Garrison made often after practice to get some face time with his son. On the court, he found his footing too, starting the final 29 games of the season and averaging 7.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He scored a season-high 21 points on 7-8 shooting in Oklahoma State’s upset over BYU and 20 points on a perfect 7-7 from the field and 6-6 from the free-throw line vs. Baylor in his Big 12 debut.
Those performances stuck with Mark Pope and Alvin Brooks III. Mike Boynton was fired after Oklahoma State failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row, so Garrison entered the transfer portal. He had yet to make a decision when the changing of the guard happened at Kentucky. Pope immediately reached out, wasting no time in addressing what really matters.
“He knew I had a kid and stuff, and that’s the first thing we talked about,” Garrison said. “He told me he was gonna be there for me. He brought [Akarii] up first, so I didn’t have to bring it up. So I was just grateful to have a coach like that, with open arms.”
For a mom worried about her son navigating a fresh start with his own son to think about, Pope’s approach touched Weatherall as well.
“[Pope] was like, literally, ‘I’m here. I’ve only been here for like, two hours,’ and just seeing him on Zoom, we only had a conversation of five minutes, but I have great intuition. And then whenever he was, like, ‘Brandon, I just want you here. I just want you here, and I just want to be able to be that mentor for you’…That’s one thing I was seeking out, not what he can do as a coach, but what he can do to teach him values, hard work ethic as a man, as a father and that set precedence over any other person that I spoke to.”
So, Kentucky it was, a move that made sense from a basketball standpoint but not a family one. Oklahoma City and Lexington are 12.5 hours apart by car. There are no direct flights. Akarii and his mother couldn’t move with Garrison, but Weatherall wasn’t about to let her son give up on his dream.
“With Brandon, it kind of weighed on him a little bit, because he wanted to see Akarii like every day, and we had that conversation again. I said, ‘Remember, we had this conversation before he was born, that this is what the road is going to look like. We’re going to do our best to make sure that you see your son, but you know what? We have to make sacrifices as adults, as parents. And this is one sacrifice that you’re going to look back on and be thankful for.’”
Mark Pope, Brandon Garrison, and Toni Weatherall – Photo by Dylan Ballard, A Sea of Blue
It was a sacrifice on both Garrison’s and Weatherall’s parts. Weatherall and Akarii’s mother brought Akarii to Lexington whenever they could. Akarii met Pope after Kentucky’s second game of the season vs. Bucknell, when Garrison proudly showed the baby off after the 100-72 win.
Big Blue Nation didn’t get to meet Akarii for a few more months. In late February, Kentucky played Oklahoma in Norman. It was a homecoming for Otega Oweh, a former Sooner, but also for Garrison, who had plenty of family and friends in the stands and motivation to beat his old rival. It was his best game of the season. Garrison finished with 12 points, four rebounds, three blocks, and three steals in the 83-82 victory, riling up the Sooner fans so much that one threw a beer can at his head as he left the court.
Akarii was in the stands, and at Pope’s urging, Garrison brought him to the podium for the postgame press conference.
“That was a Coach Pope idea,” Garrison said. “After that big-time win at OU, obviously, all my family was there, because I’m from Oklahoma, so he told me to go get Akarii and bring him to the press conference room. So after that, it was just like, I just realized, you’ve got a coach that allows you to have your kid around and bring him around everything. So I thank Coach Pope for that.”
The clip went viral, with Akarii, decked out in a UK t-shirt, adorably weighing in with his thoughts and grabbing the microphone.
“It was very cool, just because he was one, so he was kind of starting trying to talk,” Garrison said. “So he was in the microphone just saying whatever, you know. And the reporters were loving it. So it got out there to the internet and stuff, people were loving it, so it was a great moment for both of us.”
The moment served as a coming-out party of sorts for Garrison and Akarii. After the season, Garrison came on KSR and opened up about his son to Ryan Lemond. For Father’s Day, he filmed a short video about Akarii for the UK Sports Network. At Big Blue Madness this season, Garrison even brought Akarii on stage with him, another idea from Pope, who helped lead the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to the now two-year-old.
“That was another idea from him, just because it was his birthday and I wasn’t able to make it out there, just because it was starting our season, we had a game coming up. So it was just one of his ideas, to have BBN sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. With every seat filled up in there, I feel like it would be a special moment, just to show him that they sang happy birthday for his second birthday.”
There was just one problem. When the rising platform brought Garrison and Akarii to the main stage during the introductions, the baby was terrified, crying and clutching onto his father’s shoulder. The plan had been for Akarii to wear noise-cancelling headphones, but the toddler kept pulling them off backstage.
“I should have put some headphones on him, but he kept taking them off,” Garrison said. “So I was like, he probably doesn’t want them on, but there was just a lot going on. He didn’t know what was going on. So he was just shy in the moment. But I feel like he’ll grow up looking at that and laugh about it at the end of the day.”
Kentucky Wildcats’ Brandon Garrison carried his son Akarii as he was introduced at the 2025 Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025 – © Matt Stone/The Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Behind the scenes, life is as close to normal as it can be for a 21-year-old, his mother, and his two-year-old son. Akarii and Weatherall visit as much as possible, staying at Garrison’s apartment. The two have become seasoned travelers, Akarii helping his “Gigi” in the airport as best he can.
“I feel like them two have a special bond going on,” Garrison said. “He always loves to be around her. Actually, like when she’s here, he would rather sleep with her than me.”
“Akarii is so lovable,” Weatherall said. “And Brandon was lovable, too. He’s a mama’s boy. Okay, they both are, and Brandon is still a mama’s boy, and everybody can tell.”
Garrison, Weatherall, and Akarii like to be outside, frequenting Gatton Park behind Rupp Arena, where Akarii insists on going down the slide over and over. He’s even by Garrison’s side at the Joe Craft Center, Pope encouraging his player to bring his son to practice and film sessions.
“They love him,” Garrison said of Akarii and his teammates. “They’re always asking, you know, where he at? Like, if we go out somewhere to eat, they’d be like, ‘Why didn’t you bring Akarii?’ and stuff. So, just having brothers like that in my circle that really care about him, it just means a lot for me and him.”
Brandon Garrison and his son Akarii – Photo courtesy of Toni Weatherall
A father of four girls, Pope is always ready with advice when needed, like when Akarii just won’t stop crying.
“He told me, with his daughters, he’d leave them in the crib and stuff and let them cry themself to sleep, even though you know it’s a certain cry that, like, you know they need you. But like, deep down inside you, it hurts you, but you’ve got to let them just do their own thing. And it’s part of parenting.”
The toughest moments are when Akarii and Weatherall leave. FaceTime helps. Akarii has his own tablet now and has learned how to call his dad on it.
“It’s a lot of FaceTime calls, you know, calling him whenever I get a chance, just checking on him, making sure he’s good, got everything he needs. And every time I go to sleep, just telling him good night, I love him, and stuff like that.”
“Nothing takes the place of seeing your child in person, being able to hold him,” Weatherall said. “Every time we’re home, we go to Brandon’s house. I said, ‘There’s Daddy!’ He said, ‘Dad, dad.’ I said, ‘Go get Dad, Dad!’ The garage door is open. It’s coming up. He was like, ‘Dad, Dad, Dad, I miss you.’ And so, yeah, it’s so sweet just to see them interact. Men don’t show too much emotion, but when it comes to Akarii, everything is about Akarii. Akarii is his everything. And so we make it work.”
Making it work on the court has been a bigger challenge for Garrison this season. Last year, he leaned on Amari Williams for advice. When Williams graduated and went to the pros, Garrison was determined to follow in his footsteps as a leader and offer guidance to freshman Malachi Moreno and Jayden Quaintance, a projected top 10 NBA Draft pick who transferred in from Arizona State.
“When I first got here, I was asking Amari a lot of questions,” Garrison said. “He was teaching me a lot of things. Even if I didn’t have questions, he was telling me stuff that I needed to know. So just trying to mimic what I got taught from Amari down to Jayden and Malachi, even though they’re very talented and know what’s going on, but still having a guy that’s older, who has been in college for three or so years, just having me help them out, it can help this team out.”
Garrison also took on Williams’ role as starting center. With Quaintance still rehabbing from ACL surgery and Malachi Moreno learning the ropes of the college game, this was Garrison’s opportunity to shine. Mark Pope made a point to constantly lift Garrison up in interviews, but there was no hiding the fact that the big man was struggling, most notably in Kentucky’s first two losses vs. Louisville and Michigan State.
Garrison had just two points, four rebounds, and two assists in 20 minutes against the Spartans. He sat on the bench for the final six minutes of the 83-66 loss, finishing with a team-worst -16 in efficiency. Malachi Moreno has started every game since.
“I asked him, I said, ‘Son, how did you feel about that?’ He said, ‘Mama, I don’t really care. Starting or not starting, I know what I have to do to get where I need to be.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s kind of fair, but you work so hard to get where you’re at.’ And he was like, ‘I’m not worried about that, Mama. I know what I have to do. Whether I’m starting or coming off the bench, I know what needs to be done to get where I want to be.’”
Those days are when the visits or FaceTimes with Akarii really come in handy.
“I feel like when I have any bad days or rough days, it’s always joyful just talking to him, because he makes my day brighter. Just him being the kid he is, you know, how little he is, and he’s starting to talk now, so I just feel like that’s my little getaway, right there. Just calling him or if he’s around, just being with him.”
Criticism of this team has steadily mounted over the past month, with Garrison one of the main players in the crosshairs of fans upset with Kentucky’s rough start. It was especially bad after Pope benched Garrison during the NC Central game, a clip that went viral. Garrison told reporters that he took a break from social media, which didn’t go unnoticed by his mother.
“I’m on Instagram. I noticed for a very long time that he was very quiet, no posts, nothing like that. But last night [after the Indiana game], I was like, okay, he’s back. He’s back. But I can tell. I have three children, and I know when something’s wrong with all of them, and so I’ll text him and say, ‘You okay? Doing a mental check-in.’ And so for him to say he’s taking a break, that speaks volumes of again, his maturity.”
When asked about benching Garrison in the press conference after the NC Central game, Mark Pope was terse, telling reporters that his team has some guys who don’t know what it means to compete. Weatherall finally broached the subject with her son, who acknowledged his mistake.
“I said, ‘Son, what happened?’ He was like, ‘Mom, just, I’ll be okay.’ I said, ‘Well, what did you learn from it?’ He said, ‘I knew what I did was the reason why I was sat down, but I’ll be fine. I just have to learn from it and move forward.’ I said, ‘Exactly.’”
At the next practice, Garrison won every sprint, even outrunning the guards, which Pope praised him for in his press conference the day before the Indiana game. As her son left the apartment for shootaround on Saturday, Weatherall reminded him of the conversations they’d been having since Tuesday night.
“I told him, I said, You need to be the leader that I know you are. I said, this team needs a leader.”
Against Indiana, Garrison helped the Cats come back from a seven-point halftime deficit. Kentucky trailed by three when he checked in at the 15-minute mark. Over the next five and a half minutes, he dished an assist to Kam Williams for a fastbreak layup, rebounded and put back an Otega Oweh miss, got a steal on Indiana’s next possession, and blocked a shot. Kentucky led by one when Garrison checked out at the 9:30 mark. When he came back in a few minutes later, he and Oweh connected on the feel-good moment of the night, an alley-oop dunk that brought Rupp Arena to its feet.
Kentucky Wildcats forward Brandon Garrison (10) celebrates after a slam dunk with his tongue out in the second half as the Cats beat the Hoosiers 72-60 during college basketball at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, December 13, 2025 – © Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Garrison’s stats vs. Indiana – six points, five rebounds, two assists, a block, and a steal in 21 minutes – may not leap off the page, but his energy was contagious. He looked like the player fans grew to love last season for the spark he provided off the bench. Pope couldn’t sing his praises loudly enough after the game.
“I’m left with just real pride. Like, BG’s mom should be really proud. His inner circle should be really proud. Because there’s something inside him. I think we talked about it at the press conference, maybe. There’s something inside him.”
“There were 100 reasons why BG could have gone in the corner and complained with a teammate or called out to coaches or hung up his jersey or come and been a pouty guy in practice. There were 1,000 reasons why that could have been his reaction, but due to what’s inside him, and how he wants to be a father, an example to his son, and how he wants to make his mom proud, and how badly he wants to be successful and the process of him growing up to be, hopefully, a great man, which hopefully he can do. That would be worth everything.”
When it was his turn to talk to reporters, Garrison credited his mother for helping him through a tough week.
“I feel like my mother helps me out with that a lot. She always encourages me. If I have problems, I’ll talk to her. She’s been my light ever since stuff has been happening. I give her all the kudos. She’s just been helping me through this all.”
Weatherall hadn’t heard that quote when we spoke. When I read it to her, she had to take a moment to collect herself.
“I didn’t know he said that,” she said, crying. “Sometimes, I think whenever I speak to him, sometimes I feel like I can’t reach him. Because we want the best for our children, but man.”
“It makes me feel good, because he’s a great person. He’s a unique, different guy. I call him my unicorn. And just to know that I give him that comfort, even as a young adult, just lets me know that I’m breaking through to him whenever he’s at his highs and his lows, whenever he feels like he can’t move forward or persevere through the odds, whenever you know he is the most criticized player on the team, he still takes it. He doesn’t take it as a loss. He takes it as a lesson.”
Pope was the first to admit that his behavior toward Garrison during the NC Central game was out of character – “I wish I could tell you I know how every player is going to react to every confrontation or conversation I have with them, but you don’t.” Weatherall was more stunned than anyone to see the moment unfold at Rupp; however, what happened just four days later is proof that it worked.
“It just made me feel that what happened last Tuesday was a resemblance of somebody teaching Brandon to be held accountable for his actions. It’s a form of tough love that nobody likes to feel, not even myself, but at the same time, we have to be pushed because sometimes we become complacent and think everything is okay.”
Toni Weatherall and Brandon Garrison’s son, Akarii – Photo by Dylan Ballard, A Sea of Blue
Weatherall recorded the game at Garrison’s apartment and watched it over and over again with Akarii. During one of the replays, she filmed her reaction for her son.
“This is the son that I know that can play basketball,” Weatherall said in the video. “I’m proud of you, son. Continue to be consistent. Be that leader. I’m in tears right now. Please continue to be like this.”
“I was just in tears because we had a conversation all week,” she said of the moment. “I was there at the right time. And so we talked, and I said, ‘I want you to promise me a few things, not just for the moment, but forever.’ And we did. We always do a pinky promise. I said, ‘You got me?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I got you, Mama.’ And so when I saw his performance, I said, he’s back. He’s back. But I told him, I said, Don’t stop.”
Garrison can’t afford to stop. Saturday was a good step toward being the player that Kentucky needs him to be, but with Jayden Quaintance’s debut just around the corner, he needs to flourish in that role, or it won’t be his for long.
“My advice to him is what I told him before I left this morning at 5:30,” Weatherall said. “I said, ‘You remain consistent, no distractions, and you put the work in, accept coaching, but not criticism.’ And what I mean by that is accept the words of good guidance and not people tearing you down.”
“Be consistent. Consistency is key. Now there’s no turning back. We’re not turning back.”
That’s a lesson Garrison can pass down to his son one day.
“Just knowing that I’ve got to do it for somebody else other than me, I feel like that’s the biggest thing, the mindset I’ve got to have to provide for him and give him the things he wants and teach him the ways.”