photo by: AP Photo/Nell Redmond

Charlotte Hornets guard Marcus Garrett looks to pass during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, March 18, 2025.

Former Kansas defensive stalwart Marcus Garrett will join JHX Hoops, the KU alumni team taking part in The Basketball Tournament, it was announced on Tuesday morning.

It will be Garrett’s first appearance in TBT — although he was once declared a prospective participant in 2023 — and he joins Frank Mason III, Zeke Mayo and Lagerald Vick among the confirmed former Jayhawks who will vie for the tournament’s $2 million prize within a field of 16 teams.

Garrett, a guard listed at 6-foot-6, has spent much of his professional career in the NBA G League, including the past three years with the Greensboro Swarm, the Charlotte Hornets’ affiliate. During the 2025-26 season, he started 27 of 30 games, averaging 12.2 points, 4.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals, and helped lead the Swarm to a championship.

He has played 16 NBA games in his career, including 12 as an undrafted rookie for the Miami Heat in 2021-22 and four more when the Hornets called him up briefly late in the 2024-25 campaign.

At KU, Garrett was a three-time Big 12 all-defensive selection, as well as the national defensive player of the year in 2020, when the Jayhawks ranked No. 1 but never got the chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament. As a senior in 2021, he posted the best offensive numbers of his college career at 11.0 points on 45.9% shooting, including 34.8% from deep.

JHX Hoops continues to build up its backcourt in pursuit of a lengthy run through TBT, something that has eluded the KU alumni in the past as they have lost in the third round each of the past three years. The tournament is now somewhat shorter given its reduced quantity of teams, although it begins with a best-of-three series. To start that series, the KU alumni will face the Kansas State alumni team Purple Reign at Bramlage Coliseum on July 21 at 8 p.m.