Jersey retired for former AU basketball player Garrett Siler
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Just a couple of years ago, Augusta University Head Basketball Coach Dip Metress called Garrett Siler one of the Mount Rushmore players of Augusta University.
Now, his jersey will hang almost just as high at Christenberry Fieldhouse.
16 years after making back-to-back trips to the final four, Siler’s career is forever immortalized in the blue and white.
“It’s honest, it’s real still. Seeing the actual banner, seeing everything that’s going up there,” said Siler. “It took a lot of long nights, early mornings, a lot of great teammates, great coaching staff throughout the years. I never would have thought I would have been in this position.”
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Neither did Metress at one point, until Siler changed the coach’s mind.
“He scored less than 50 points in high school. He came up here and redshirted. All of a sudden, I watched this guy develop. I’m watching him one day, and Coach Bryant, an old athletic director, goes, this guy’s going to play for some money one day,” said Metress.
He went on to play in the NBA.
These days, he’s back on the bench, still living out a kid’s dream, just in a grown-up jersey.
“I never would have thought I would have been in this position. But coach said it probably right around the summer of my sophomore year, you got a chance to do something great with what you got,” said Siler. “If you keep working, something will pan out well. I’ve been from the red shirt guy who couldn’t walk in two bubble gum at the same time to being an All-American.”
He was a kid from Richmond County, whose name will always have a place in Richmond County.
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