KINGSTON, R.I. — Jarvis Garrett has two extra special reasons to lead Rhode Island to the NCAA Tournament this year and possibly next.
The 5-foot-10 junior point guard for the Rams has 11-month-old twin boys — Jayce and Jeremiah — and hopes to play professionally down the road in order to provide for them.
“Yes, I am motivated to try to play professionally, play further than college basketball,” Garrett, a Milwaukee native, told me Thursday after practice at the Ryan Center. “I feel like I’m in the right position right now as long as I stay on the right path and listen to coach [Dan Hurley].”
The Rams, ranked No. 24 in the USA Today/Coaches’ Poll, haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1999 when Garrett was a young child and Jimmy Harrick was the team’s head coach.
But there is a huge buzz surrounding Hurley’s program now that the Rams are healthy and hungry following a slew of injuries last season to Garrett (fractured jaw), point guard E.C. Matthews (ACL) and forward Hassan Martin (knee, ankle). NBA scouts are frequent visitors to Rhode Island practices, where there are multiple pro prospects.
Even if Garrett doesn’t wind up in the NBA, a strong performance across this season and possibly next could help him play professionally somewhere.
“The ultimate balance for him is he wants to make sure he’s there for those kids,” said Notre Dame (MA) Prep coach Ryan Hurd, who coached Garrett for two years. “He needs this experience to go right at URI because this is the way that he’s going to be able to provide for them.
“When he knows he has to make tough decisions, his decisions are based on, ‘I have to provide for those children.'”
Garrett said he shares custody of his sons with their mother, who lives near campus.
“Right now we are separated, but we are still like best friends,” he said.
Garrett and his coaches keep a master schedule of all of Rhode Island’s practices and games, and he sees the children whenever time permits.
“I sit down with her and we go through the schedule day by day, month by month,” he said. “The next time I will see them is Saturday. I will have them the full day Saturday. I take care of them of by myself [when he has them].”
Hurd has no doubt that Garrett will be a good father based on his experiences with him at Notre Dame Prep.
“In his free time, you find him over at the middle school [at Notre Dame Prep] organizing something for the little kids, a game or just sitting and talking to them” he said.
“When he decided he was going to sign his Letter of Intent, it was unbelievably important for him to fly back home and and do that at the Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club because it had been such a big part of his life. When you think of an 18-year-old kid at that point, that awareness of the people that helped him in his life, you’re dealing with a special kid.”
Garrett is especially excited about this upcoming season now that the “Core Four” of himself, Matthews, Martin and junior guard Jared Terrell are all able to play together. After an injury-plagued season in which they finished 17-15, 9-9 in the A-10, the Rams were picked second in the A-10 this season behind Dayton.
“I feel that we can be very powerful,” he said. “I sit back sometimes when I’m on the sideline out of the drills and be like, “Man we are a powerful team.’ We have about nine or 10 guys that can actually go and play defense and score. It’s amazing just to sit back and see how powerful a team can be.
“I feel like it can be a really great year this year as long as we stay locked in and stay on pace with everybody and we buy into the system.”
Garrett and Matthews were ranked the Best Backcourt in the A-10 by Blue Ribbon, and the 25th-best backcourt in the country. Matthews thinks they can be better than that.
“I would say by far we are Top 10, Top 5 in the country in the backcourt,” Garrett said.
Both guys are healthy now after brutal injuries last season. Matthews, a projected second-round NBA pick, tore his ACL during the first game of the season. Matthews is still shaking off the rust but Garrett loves him back in practice.
“It’s amazing,” Garrett said. “I missed him just knowing that when I drive I got somebody that I can really kick it out to that can really shoot the ball. I can always count on him knowing that seven times out of 10 he’s going to make that three. He’s going to make that play for me.”
Garrett suffered his own injury last season. On Jan. 30 against St. Joe’s, he was head-butted in the face and lost a tooth. He was told he would have to wear a Hannibal Lecter mask the remainder of the season if he wanted to keep playing. After missing one game, he was back wearing the mask.
“Oh my god, I hated it,” he said. “I hated it but I dealt with it. It was very hard to play with the mask. Peripheral vision, I couldn’t really see with the side view.”
Garrett said he got some taunts, too.
“My first game back we played La Salle and someone in the crowd yelled out, “Who’s the masked man? That just stuck with me.”
He responded by pouring in a career-high 26 points.
“He’s a sweet, kind kid in every way until he plays basketball and then he flips the switch,” Hurd said. “He goes into this mode where he’s ultra-competitive. He wants all the pressure on him to make it easier for everybody else which makes it easier to play with him.”
During the Pink Out Game against George Mason on Feb. 10, fans came wearing Lecter masks to support their floor general.
“The best thing that came out of it was when we played here for the Pink Out game and everybody in the crowd had the mask,” he said.
Without Matthews for the whole season, Garrett averaged 12.5 points, 4.7 assists and 3.7 rebounds, while leading the team in three-point percentage (42).
“He grew a lot,” Matthews said. “I felt it was a leadership void that Jarvis had to take on. He probaby wasn’t comfortable with it at first but once he started talking up and guys started listening and his game started to elevate. He can score up there with the best of them and his facilitating is great. He’s very fast so I feel like it’s made him a better player and us more prepared for what we gotta do this year.”
Said Hurley: “Jarvis last year from the last 20 games of the season played the point guard at an incredibly high level. His numbers, to shoot 52 percent from three in 18 conference games while doing it with the Hannibal Lecter mask on. If you look at his numbers against Providence and Kris Dunn, the level he played at when the competition was at its fiercest, I think bodes well for him to be one of the best players in our league this year. That’s what he was last year as a sophomore in our league wearing the mask and having a bevy of injuries around him.”
Now that he’s healthy — and so is everyone else around him — Garrett is looking forward to a date with March Madness. And a bright future for himself and his twin boys.
“It could help me as well,” he said, “and possibly change the better for me [and his children] for the future.”
(Photos: Jarvis Garrett, AP)
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