Self announces signings of BV Northwest’s Christian Braun, Arkansas’ Issac McBride
Kansas, as expected, announced the signing of perimeter players Christian Braun and Issac McBride to national college basketball letters-of-intent on Wednesday, the first day of the week-long early signing period.
Braun, a 6-6, 180-pound senior combo guard from Blue Valley Northwest High School, who committed to KU on Sept. 17, sent his signed paperwork to KU’s athletic department Wednesday morning, then took part in a 3 p.m ceremony at his high school.
McBride, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior combo guard from Baptist Prep in Little Rock, Ark., who orally committed to KU on Oct. 1, signed his letter Wednesday afternoon, also at his high school, forwarding the paperwork to KU’s compliance office.
“It will certainly be a transition for both of these guys stepping into the college game, but we anticipate them both to be guys that can contribute immediately,” KU coach Bill Self said Wednesday in announcing receipt of the letters-of-intent.
Braun, who is ranked No. 112 in the Class of 2019 by Rivals.com, averaged 14.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists his junior season for state champion BV Northwest. He also won state his sophomore season at Northwest and played spring and summer AAU basketball for MoKan Basketball.
“Christian is a player that we have followed watching him play through his AAU team, MoKan, but also through his highly successful career at Blue Valley Northwest,” Self said. “We have been aware of him for a long time but this summer is when he really intrigued us. He’s a player that has great size and great range. He’s an athlete that can make plays above the rim and with his versatility, we feel like he’s a perfect fit for what we are trying to do.”
Braun’s dad, Donald, was a former walk-on basketball player at KU. His mother, Lisa, was a three-time all-Big Eight Conference selection at Missouri, where she played basketball from 1987-91. Christian’s uncle, Mike Sandbothe, played at MU from 1986-89. His brother Parker, a former Blue Valley Northwest standout, is a freshman forward at Mizzou.
“Christian comes from an athletic family,” Self said. “His father was a walk-on player here. His mother was a terrific player at Missouri and his uncle Mike Sandbothe is a guy all KU fans remember from back in the late 1980s. We’re excited to have him here and certainly he’ll be a guy that will make us better in multiple ways due to his versatility.”
McBride, who goes by the nickname “Mackey” (because of the resemblance to his paternal grandfather of the same name), has led Baptist Prep to three consecutive state titles. He set the school’s single-season scoring record (707 pointss) his sophomore season. As a junior, he scored 883 points, which included a school-record 46-point game.
Overall he averaged 24.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game in 2017-18.
“Issac, who we all call Mackey, can play point but he’s a combo guard who can score,” Self said of the No. 109-ranked player in the Class of 2019 by Rivals.com. “When you watch him, you are so impressed with his range, quickness and explosiveness and his ability to elevate on his shot. We see him as a guy that can come in and obviously give us depth on perimeter shooting. He is a guy that can just score the ball. We haven’t had too many here like that, a natural scorer. He’s a combo guard that can jump up and make a shot wherever he is on the court.”
McBride is a two-time all-state pick who played AAU ball for the Arkansas Hawks.
“We saw him play in Las Vegas this summer with his AAU team. It was the first time we had ever seen him play,” Self said. “He played against a team with two top-five players in their respective class and he dominated the game. We watched him a few more times at that event and offered him right after that event, after seeing him play about five times.”
Meanwhile, Chandler Lawson, a 6-8, 200-pound senior forward from Memphis’ Wooddale High School, and brother of KU’s Lawson brothers, signed with Oregon on Wednesday.
Lawson, who is ranked No. 87 in the Class of 2019 by Rivals.com, chose the Ducks over Mississippi and Georgia Tech. Lawson visited KU, but the Jayhawks have been targeting other forwards in recruiting, thus KU was not a finalist.
“Their style of play fits what I bring to the table,” Lawson said Wednesday on 730 AM SB Nation in Memphis. “The players there at Oregon will help me to reach my next goal of the NBA. (Coach Dana Altman) made me feel like a super hero. When I came into town he said it’s going to be my town just like Memphis.”
Cassius Stanley, a 6-5 senior combo guard from Sierra Canyon High in Chatsworth, Calif., may wait until the spring to choose between KU, UCLA and Oregon, his dad, Jerome, told Eric Bossi of Rivals.com.
“We are slowing down a bit as we’ll carefully review everything,” Jerome Stanley said Wednesday. “Plus we want to see a few games played.”
Stanley is ranked No. 31 in the Class of 2019 by Rivals.com.
Gary Bedore
Gary Bedore covers University of Kansas athletics for The Star.
