Notebook: Christian Garrett goes out in style on Senior Night

Kansas senior guard Christian Garrett, addresses the crowd after the Jayhawks game against the West Virginia Mountaineers Tuesday, March 4, 2015 at Allen Fieldhouse..

Kansas University senior Christian Garrett, who red-shirted second semester of the 2010-11 season after leaving Florida’s IMG Academy early, has been part of five Big 12 championship teams at KU.

That’s five rings for the 6-4, 185-pound native of Los Angeles.

“The first one I got here was cool. I was only here two to three months. I lucked into that one,” said Garrett. He, his mother, Cynthia, and stepdad, Roger were introduced to the Allen Fieldhouse crowd before Tuesday’s KU-West Virginia game.

• Box score

Garrett, who per tradition, made his first career start — committing one foul and being fouled once before giving way to Kelly Oubre, Jr. one minute, 46 seconds into the game, also spoke to the fans after KU’s pulsating 76-69 overtime victory.

“I’ve been blessed. Every year we’ve won the Big 12. We’ve had years we’ve gone rally far in the tournament (Elite Eight, 2010-11; Final Four, 2011-12; Sweet 16, 2012-13). A lot of people don’t even have one ring. To us it’s regular. We expect to have two every year, from going to the Final Four and winning the Big 12. We hope to do the same thing this year. I believe we can.”

Garrett outlined the highlights of his career.

“Going to the Final Four freshman year was crazy. That team was a great team,” Garrett said. “Every person on this team, every coach, people you meet, these are relationships that will last a lifetime. My life has definitely changed since I got here, too. Kansas has a whole different special place in my heart and my life. Hopefully this team will be my last memory. Hopefully we can finish it all the way.”

Senior managers honored: KU on Tuesday also honored senior managers Jordan Buell (Valley Center), Chris Huey (Kansas City, Kansas) and Emily Tyler (Lee’s Summit, Missouri).

Huggins a winner: West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins entered Tuesday’s WVU-KU game with 762 victories against 309 losses in 33 seasons.

“He’s done great,” KU coach Bill Self said of the 61-year-old Huggins, who has also been coach at Kansas State, Cincinnati, Akron and Walsh College.

“I don’t know if fans realize Bob is third-active winningest coach behind coach K (Mike Krzyzewski, Duke, 1009 wins) and coach Boeheim (Jim, Syracuse, 966 wins). I’m sure he’ll coach several more years. He’ll get to 900 wins. He’s a Hall of Fame guy and has done a terrific job.”

Huggins netted bonus money of $25,000 both last season and this season after wins over KU in Morgantown, West Virginia. KU coach Self, by the way, pockets $50,000 in bonus money for winning the league again this year.

Huggins on KU basketball: “They have a great team. They are always well prepared, extremely well coached and very talented.”

Cliff is missed: KU’s Kelly Oubre Jr., on fellow freshman Cliff Alexander, who missed his second straight game because of an unknown issue regarding his eligibility.

“We see in his face he wants to be on the court with us. He is out in practice going as hard as he can because he wants to get back on the court. We definitely will put him on our back and take care of business for him because we know he deserves to be on the court and wants to be on the court so badly,” Oubre said.

Schedule: KU, which concludes the regular season at 3 p.m., Saturday at Oklahoma, will play its first-round Big 12 Tournament game a week from Thursday in Sprint Center. Game time is 1:30 p.m., after an 11:30 a.m., game between the winner of Wednesday’s game between the No. 8 and 9 seeds.