Dajuan Harris emerges as the ‘igniter’ for KU in Jayhawks’ first victory of season
Kansas sophomore guard Christian Braun led the way with 30 points, nine rebounds, four steals and three assists in the Jayhawks’ 94-72 victory over Saint Joseph’s on Friday at the Tip-Off Classic in Fort Myers, Florida.
The former Blue Valley Northwest standout proved instrumental in helping KU bounce back from a season-opening 102-90 loss to Gonzaga on Thanksgiving Day.
While KU coach Bill Self lauded Braun for playing “extremely well,” versus Saint Joseph’s, he also spread the credit around.
“If you are going to pick the igniter or best player as far as our team looked, it would be Dajuan Harris. He sparked us more than anybody,” Self said Friday in his postgame radio interview.
Harris, a 6-1, 160-pound redshirt freshman out of Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri, who played three minutes at the end of the KU-Gonzaga game, entered Friday’s contest with 15:30 remaining and KU leading 50-49.
Harris scored three points, dished five assists, secured three rebounds and swiped two steals while committing just one turnover while playing the remainder of the game.
“C.B. scored the points. Dajuan was the guy out there at the end,” Self said of Harris, who drilled his only shot attempt — a three-pointer that gave KU an 83-65 lead with four minutes to play.
“What he does is get other people shots. He has really good vision. Of course he is so light. He has to get stronger. I thought he was really good. Defensively he took two charges. We didn’t have a charge yesterday (vs. Gonzaga) and don’t believe we had another one today,” Self added.
Self stressed that, “The biggest difference in ball movement was when Dajuan was in the game. The ball never stuck with him. When he got it, it was in and out of his hands so fast. That makes the defense go strong to weak faster. We’ve got guys who sometimes are ball-holders. That kind of kills everything. One thing we can show our guys is how much better we are offensively when the ball moves. Dajuan is a big part of that.”
Self had not talked much about Harris in interviews during the preseason. KU’s coach explained after Friday’s game the backup point guard has been “nicked up,” at practice and just now is beginning to show his true speed on the court.
“This was absolutely not a surprise,” noted Braun, who was a MOKAN Basketball AAU teammate of Harris for several seasons. “I’ve seen it for a long time. That’s who Dajuan is. That’s what he does. That’s what he’ll keep doing,” Braun added of Harris distributing the ball effectively and playing stout defense.
“I was so proud to see him step up and play well when he got put in,” Braun added. “He took some time off last year (in redshirting for academic reasons) and today took advantage of the opportunity. We’ll see more of this in the future,” Braun added.
Christian Braun, as well as his brothers Parker, a University of Missouri sophomore, and Landon, a Blue Valley Northwest sophomore, are quite close to Harris, who has lived with the Brauns during the summer AAU season every year since Dajuan and Christian Braun were in seventh grade.
“He has a room upstairs at our house (in Overland Park),” former Missouri basketball standout Lisa Sandbothe-Braun, mother of the three Braun brothers, told The Kansas City Star after Harris committed to KU on July 18, 2019. “He’s absolutely a treat. He’s taught my kids a lot,” she added.
Harris for several years has assisted his grandmother in raising his three younger sisters and two younger brothers in Columbia, Missouri.
“He’s been through a battle and remained a good kid. Basketball and the good people he’s surrounded himself with kind of helped him stay on that path. He’s had two choices, the right way or wrong way, and chose the right way. I’m proud of him for that,” Sandbothe-Braun told The Star.
Harris, a former Missouri State signee who asked out of his letter-of-intent in May of 2019, was Rivals.com’s No. 136-ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2020. He ultimately reclassified to 2019.
He blossomed not only in high school but with MOKAN Basketball.
“My husband and I have watched him since he started with MOKAN (in seventh grade),” Sandbothe-Braun told The Star after Harris’ commitment to KU. “He has great hands and can defend like no kid that age I’ve ever seen. He can handle the ball. He’s athletically so gifted. With the right routine … he’s never lifted weights, (has eaten) Cheetos and played open gym. Imagine when he gets structure and weight put on him.
“He controls the floor, makes good decisions, can pass the ball. Everybody has to have a Dajuan Harris on their team. When he penetrates and can dish the way he does he makes everybody better,” she added.
MOKAN’s Drew Molitoris who coached Christian Braun and Harris in the summers of their seventh, eighth and ninth grade years of school, told The Star in July 2019: “It’s rare to find a kid who can absolutely dominate a game that is not a high-volume shooter, scorer or a physical presence. He is neither one of those but dominates the game on both ends by getting guys easy looks. Passes are exactly right where they need to be. At a school like Kansas where they will have a low-post presence and talented kids on wings … it’s a perfect fit.
“He is a kid that prioritizes winning above anything else. Scoring isn’t necessarily his forte. He can dominate a game based on his ability to pass and defend. He has tremendous leadership qualities. It sounds simple, but he is a winner — the same quality Christian had for us in terms of always prioritizing the team above any individual stat or recognition,” Molitoris added.
KU will next meet Kentucky at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Jayhawks were to practice Saturday and Sunday in Florida, then fly to Indy at 3 p.m. Sunday.
This story was originally published November 29, 2020 at 9:13 AM.
