KU notebook: Keenan Fitzmorris of St. James Academy chooses Stanford

Keenan Fitzmorris is joining his sister ,Audriana, at Stanford University.

Fitzmorris, a 7-foot (in shoes), 195-pound senior-to-be from St. James Academy and KC Run GMC’s AAU program, has orally committed to play basketball for former Kansas guard Jerod Haase’s Cardinal program. Audriana Fitzmorris, USA Today’s 2015 national high school volleyball player of the year, was a freshman starter last season for Stanford’s NCAA championship volleyball team.

Keenan Fitzmorris, who attended Kansas’ Late Night in the Phog last season on an unofficial recruiting trip and cited KU’s interest as “moderate to medium,” chose Stanford over Kansas State, Texas Tech, Wichita State, St. John’s, Missouri, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Creighton and others.

Fitzmorris is ranked No. 109 in the recruiting class of 2018 by Rivals.com. He’s averaged 5.3 points and 3.0 rebounds a game this spring and summer in 12 games for KC Run GMC. He’s made 35 percent of his shots and 75 percent of his free throws. He’s 4 of 16 from three and has nine blocks in the 12 games.

KC Run GMC will participate in the Under Armour Association Finals on July 12-15 in Atlanta.

“I’m incredibly excited,” Fitzmorris told The Star on Tuesday night. “Coach Haase has very high character, is a great person. He has has so many experiences, including under Roy Williams at KU, and has worked with so many great players. He values you being a scrappy, hard-working player.

“I think he’s done a great job including at UAB (where he was before Stanford),” Fitzmorris added to The Star.

He earlier told Rivals.com: “I’ve always known that it (Stanford) is a great school and a great program with great people. Throughout the recruiting process I was always impressed with the character of the coaches there and it’s the greatest school in the world.

“It doesn’t hurt that my sister is there,” he added.

Stanford also has a commitment in the class of 2018 from Cormac Ryan, a 6-5 senior shooting guard from Milton (Mass.) Academy who is ranked No. 63 nationally.

“It feels incredible,” Fitzmorris told Rivals.com. “It’s a lot off of my shoulders. It’s bittersweet to end things with so many great coaches that have recruited me. It’s nice to focus on school and basketball this last year.”

KU will play Stanford at Allen Fieldhouse in Fitzmorris’ freshman season and at Stanford his sophomore campaign.

As far as volleyball, the 2017 Final Four is Dec. 14 and 16 at the Sprint Center. Former St. James standout Jenna Gray also started for Stanford last season as a freshman.

Quinerly lauds Arizona

Jahvon Quinerly, a 6-foot point guard from Hudson Catholic High School in Hackensack, N.J., took his first official visit to Arizona on June 24-26.

“I spent a lot of time with Rawle Alkins and Allonzo Trier and all the other guys and they welcomed me there as if I was family,” he wrote in his USA Today blog. “They were mad cool and gave me the real about how it is there and what coach Sean Miller wants to accomplish.

“They all love it there and I can see why.”

Quinerly, who is ranked No. 24 in the recruiting class of 2017 by Rivals.com, has a list of KU, Arizona, Seton Hall, Stanford, Villanova, Virginia and UCLA.

He recently said he hears from “if not all of them, at least like four of them” on a daily basis.

He and Sports U AAU teammate Naz Reid have several schools in common, including Arizona, Kansas, Seton Hall and UCLA. They have discussed attending school together.

The 6-10 Reid is coming off his first official to LSU this past week.

Two-and-dones better off?

A study by the Lansing State Journal in Michigan has deduced that college basketball players who stay two years in college instead of one do not hurt themselves financially in the long run.

In fact, the newspaper’s Graham Couch has concluded through his own study that those who stay in college for a second year have “longer and more lucrative” NBA careers than one-and-dones.

Couch found that the average career earnings for NBA players drafted (outside the top five picks) between 2006 and 2012 who played two years of college basketball before turning pro is $31 million. That compares to average career earnings of $28 million for NBA players drafted outside of the top five picks between 2006 and 2012 who were one-and-dones in college.

There are 35 two-and-done players in the NBA who were drafted between 2006 and 2012. There are 30 one-and-done college players drafted between 2006 and ’12 still active in the NBA.

“Two-and-done college players, selected outside of the top five, tend to play longer, make more money during their careers and be slightly more productive on the court than their one-and-done counterparts. In other words, the players who are the more flawed prospects, are statistically better off entering the league with an extra year of maturity,” Couch wrote.

The reason he charted first-round picks starting in 2006 is that’s the first year players were required to be one year out of high school to be draft eligible. Going through 2012 means every player in the group has “played at least five seasons and outplayed their rookie contract,” he wrote.

One-and-dones are in the news because NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently stated the one-and-done system was “not working for anyone.” In the past he’s said he’d like to raise the minimum age from 19 to 20 to enter the draft. However, he might be willing to consider a proposal allowing players to turn pro out of high school, but if they elect to attend college, must stay two or three seasons.

“I thought what he said is positive,” KU coach Bill Self recently said of Silver. “When you first hear it (NBA message), you hear kids can go out of high school which I think would be great. If they go to college maybe they have to stay a certain period of time which I think would be great.

“You also don’t know how the Developmental League (now called the G-League) plays into everything. That could be a huge factor,” Self added.

There’s been talk D-League salaries could increase for certain prospects, maybe those who enter right out of high school.

“I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows yet. The talks (between NBA and Players Association) are probably in the infant stages. Does this mean all high school kids can go to the Development League now? How much are they going to pay them? There’s a lot of things to figure out. I think in theory it sounds great,” KU’s Self added of a change to the current system in which players are allowed to turn pro a year after their high school class graduates, with a minimum age of 19.