Garrick on … Tom Izzo’s Final Four advice | How to pass a drug test

Step aside Charles Barkley and Bill Walton. At least for one night, former Notre Dame and Michigan State C Garrick Sherman is the most candid and unvarnished man in the world of basketball. Sherman uncorked a Twitter tirade from the European country of Georgia, where he’s playing professionally, that reverberated from South Bend and East Lansing … to Indianapolis, headquarters of the NCAA.

Sherman took pokes at the Spartans, including former teammate Durrell Summers and coach Tom Izzo, but saved his most biting tweets for the NCAA, which continues to be a magnet for intense criticism and scrutiny. Sherman’s disgust for the NCAA was so obvious and so strong that the organization is liable to reenter his crosshairs at a future date.  

An unrepentant Sherman sat down with Campus Insiders’ basketball analyst Jordan Cornette to discuss his news-making comments, his life in Georgia and his playing days with the Spartans and the Fighting Irish. 

Jordan Cornette: A Twitter rant of epic proportions last night from former Notre Dame forward Garrick Sherman now playing overseas in Georgia. We got him on the horn Skyping in to rehash this whole thing. Garrick, first things first, man, how hungover are you?

Garrick Sherman: Everyone seems to think I can’t hold my alcohol. This is nothing new. I come from the country. There’s nothing else to do. This is like second nature, so I’m fine.

JC: Do we own a brush? Did we take a shower? Look at you, man. Look at the hair. It’s like I’m talking to Touchdown Jesus now.

GS: I got plenty of conditioner in my hair this morning. I feel great. If my hair looks good, my day is good.

JC: Some people are mean drunks. Garrick, my friend, you might be a mean tweeter. What prompted this whole Twitter rant?

GS: Everyone thinks I had some ulterior motive, you know I’ve been hashing this out for months or I’d written down multiple notes and then just let them go. I literally was bored out of my mind and figured I’d tell some stories about playing basketball.

JC: Some stories you told. I think I got an idea. What do people do for fun in Georgia, not the state, the country?

GS: Umm, they like to sit outside and speak in Georgian, you know, talk for hours. Considering I know three Georgian words, one consisting of f*** I usually don’t have much to say in those conversations.

JC: Yeah, I think that might be bleeped out for reasonable purposes. I want to take a look at a tweet. Let’s get into these tweets. There are a million gold tweets, I can only get into a few. This one, “At the Final Four, Coach (Tom) Izzo told me not to f’ng embarrass myself in front of a crowd bigger than my hometown after I air-balled a shot. Now, Garrick I hate to say from a coach, from his perspective, this is not bad advice, man. What did you take from it?

GS: No, not bad advice at all. That’s probably one of the more constructive pieces of criticism that a coach has given me. I can use that, you know. When he called me a country bumpkin and I have no place on the court, you know that doesn’t really help me. That was actually good advice. I shouldn’t embarrass myself by putting up an air ball.

JC: What was the relationship with Coach Izzo? It seems like it was a rocky relationship.

GS: It really wasn’t that awful. We didn’t see eye to eye on the way basketball is supposed to be played.  His idea of a big man was stand on the block, set screens and shove people ’til you get a rebound. So, it’s not necessarily my game for anybody who’s watched me. If we could do away with defense in general that’s pretty much what I would do.

JC: Okay, another tweet here. “I pissed in a condom and I gave it to Durrell Summers to pass a drug test”. Now, let’s break this one down. I have a lot of questions. First, who’s bringing a condom to the facilities? You’re going to practice when you get tested. Had you guys tried this before? How much urine goes in a condom before it breaks? I mean, answer these questions, I gotta know.

GS: Jordan, you should know better than this. As an athlete …

JS: No, no, no, no. Let’s stop first. I don’t know better than this. I’m not in the line of fire. So go ahead.

GS: No, I’m definitely throwing you under the bus with me. There’s no way you’re avoiding this. So, as an athlete, you know everyone has condoms at any time during any possible occasion. And you know, I wasn’t going to pee in a Wendy’s cup and give it to him to take to his drug test. I don’t think he’s allowed to sneak that in quite as easily. So, a condom was the easiest way, and that’s just the way it goes.

JC: Have you heard from Durrell Summers?

GS: No, I don’t really plan to considering I was his teammate for two years and I’m pretty sure he never knew my name.

JC: Have you heard from any of your former Michigan State teammates?

GS: Uhh, Delvon Roe, Austin Thornton, Mike Kebler … they wanted to check in, make sure I’m not on acid tripping out, but you know, I don’t really feel bad about saying any of the things I said. I guess that’s the worst part about it? People expect me to have remorse, but I don’t, so …

JC: Now, Garrick, I know you, so I didn’t expect that, which is why I reached out because I knew you’d probably be willing to elaborate. Now, Michigan State, they took a couple of shots when you had a night of drinking in Georgia. You have four more nights in Georgia before coming back to the states. Should the Notre Dame crowd be worried next time you pop bottles out there in Georgia?

GS: I had a great career at Notre Dame, and I had a great at Michigan State, too. I have nothing against Michigan State or Notre Dame. I think the only person who really needs to watch out is the NCAA because they don’t have any value to me.

JC: It’s interesting you touch on that, because obviously Michigan State people said you took shots at, but you took a healthy amount of shots at the NCAA as well. So, with a little more clarity now and a lower BAC, floor is yours, how do truly feel about the NCAA?

GS: I think it’s pretty much a joke. You look at the way that they run the organization, they pretty much do whatever they want whenever they want, and then try to justify it after it happens. They don’t really have a clear plan in place for anything that they’re doing. They run it like a big business, but then they don’t pay their employees. Everyone has made that argument, so I’m not going to try and convince anyone of anything they haven’t already heard.

JC: Well, Garrick Sherman, it was a joy and a pleasure to watch you play, and it’s been pretty fun to follow you on Twitter. You gained a follower here and probably a lot more out there. Now, you did admit you were going to do a shameless plug with all this new attention, plugging your hype video, so I’m giving you a shot to close out this interview. Rolling out, tell us what we’re going to see with this fantastic highlight tape of yours.

GS: You know, you’re gonna see. Well, my skill set is obviously comparable to DeAndre Jordan, so you’re going to see a lot of dunks, a lot of missed free throws and occasional passes. That’s pretty much it.

JC: That’s Garrick Sherman, aka Touchdown Jesus. Garrick Sherman, thanks for the time, brother.

GS: Thank you