Kansas' Marcus Garrett Wins Naismith Men's Defensive Player of Year Award

Kansas Jayhawks junior guard Marcus Garrett is the 2019-20 Naismith Men's Defensive Player of the Year.

"First, I would like to thank God," Garrett said in a statement via KU Athletics' official website. "I would also like to thank my coaches and teammates because these awards are won as a team, not individually. I'd also like to thank the Naismith Awards voters. We have a great season as did the other finalists who were also worthy of this award."

He continued: "I hope and pray all are safe with the current happenings worldwide, and we get back to normalcy soon. Rock Chalk!"

Garrett also acknowledged the honor on Twitter:

The 6'5", 195-pound is just the third player to ever take home this award, with West Virginia's Jevon Carter winning in 2018 and Washington's Matisse Thybulle last year. Thybulle, now with the Philadelphia 76ers, presented the award on CBS Sports HQ's live stream and then congratulated Garrett:

The Dallas native beat out finalists Ashton Hagans (Kentucky), Tre Jones (Duke) and Mark Vital (Baylor). The Jayhawks (28-3) ended the season as the top-ranked team in the AP poll. 

Garrett averaged a career-high 9.2 points, 4.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 32.2 minutes per game across 31 starts for the No. 1 Jayhawks. He led the Big 12 in assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.7). His steals per game ranked fifth in the conference, and he also averaged 4.5 deflections per game.

Kansas owned the second-best adjusted defensive efficiency (85.5) behind only Virginia (85.1), according to KenPom.

The Jayhawks finished 17-1 in conference play. They were riding a 16-game winning streak before the remainder of the 2019-20 college basketball season was cancelled on March 12 due to the coronavirus crisis.

KU captured the regular-season Big 12 title outright on March 7, marking the 15th time in the last 16 years it has at least owned a share of the regular-season conference championship.