Former UNC basketball standout Garrison Brooks has accomplished something that no other current college player has.
Garrison Brooks and the Mississippi State Bulldogs were on the brink of one of the biggest upsets of the college basketball season on Wednesday night when their contest with the fifth-ranked Auburn Tigers went down to the wire.
The SEC’s No. 1 team and potential NCAA Tournament 1-seed eventually pulled out the win in overtime, but Brooks, a fifth-year senior and former North Carolina standout, accomplished something that no other current player in college basketball has.
In a 10-point, eight-rebound performance against the Bulldogs, Brooks became the only active player with 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds. Granted, Brooks is playing his fifth season of college basketball, most of which he’s spent as a member of his teams’ starting lineups, but that’s still one heck of an accomplishment under any circumstances.
Only ACTIVE college player with 1500 pts 1000 rebounds Garrison Brooks #FOE pic.twitter.com/hDYSyUWvlA
— Lovell Martin Jr (@Mints2u29) March 3, 2022
He reached the feat by averaging no less than 7.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in four of his five collegiate seasons — leaving out only his freshman campaign when he averaged 4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds on a modest 14.6 minutes per game.
Brooks has scored 285 points in a season twice, 323 so far this season and an outstanding 539 during his junior year at North Carolina. He collected 194 rebounds in his final season with the Tar Heels, 202 as a sophomore, 205 in 30 games this season and a career-high 272 during that sensational junior campaign that saw him average 16.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game — both team-highs.
Although he hasn’t had the kind of season at Mississippi State that he might have wanted to, Brooks has been a steady player there and in the four years he spent at North Carolina. So, congratulations Mr. Brooks, on a monumental accomplishment that no other player in college basketball can claim.
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