NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Kansas of last decade
By Joey Loose
4. Christian Braun – Kansas
One good season can do wonders for one’s stock, and it’s fair to say that Braun is coming off a pretty spectacular season. The 6’6 guard from Overland Park spent the last three seasons playing for Bill Self at Kansas, recently culminating his career by cutting down the nets as a national champion before moving on for the rest of his career.
He was a bench piece with decent stats as a freshman before working his way into a more important role as a sophomore. Most of our focus will be on that junior season where he averaged 14.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game for the Jayhawks. He helped lead the Jayhawks to eleven straight wins to finish the season, including a double-double in the national championship game against North Carolina this past April.
A Big 12 All-Freshman honoree and a recent member of the All-Big 12 Second Team, that junior season was super sweet for Braun, who continued his burst onto the scene and played a major role on a national championship team. He actually finished 2nd in the Big 12 in points while also 3rd in field goal percentage. Braun was drafted by the Denver Nuggets late in the first round of the NBA Draft and will look to transition that impact to the NBA.