Bill Self Quotes on Braun and McBride
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From the TCJ
McBride, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound native of Little Rock, Ark., is a four-star player at recruiting outlet 247Sports.com’s composite rankings as well as the nation’s No. 112-ranked recruit, while the 6-6, 180-pound Braun, an Overland Park resident who won back-to-back state championships at Blue Valley Northwest, is also a four-star player as the nation’s 126th-ranked recruit.
“It will certainly be a transition for both of these guys stepping into the college game,” KU coach Bill Self said in a news release, “but we anticipate them both to be guys that can contribute immediately.”
McBride can play the point but is also a true scoring threat, Self said, a player with impressive range, quickness and explosiveness.
“We see him as a guy that can come in and give us depth on perimeter shooting,” Self said. “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 and make a shot wherever he is in the court.”
A Burlington native, Braun averaged 14.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists as a junior, also playing for MoKan Elite at the AAU level. Self said Braun piqued KU’s interest with a strong showing this summer.
“He’s a player that has great size and great range,” Self said. “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’re trying to do.”
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Huge fan of McBride already. Kid will start here
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Self also recalled that Las Vegas adventure that led Kansas to McBride.
“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.”
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“Well, Christian obviously is from the Kansas City-area; he started out in Burlington so we’ve known of him for a while because of our connections to Burlington with Tyrel and of course Stacy and Deb Reed down there," Self said. “Even the present coach down there is a friend of ours that works the camp all the time. So we’ve known of Christian for a while, but we started following him closely this past summer even though we’ve known of him, and every time we watched him, he just kind of did a little bit more and more and more to impress us.”
“He’s got range, he’s big, he’s probably a legit 6-5, 6-6,” Self added of Braun on his weekly Hawk Talk show. “And he’ll play the point guard this year at Blue Valley Northwest. We’re not recruiting him to be a point guard, but we’re recruiting him to be a guard and interchangeable, and so we’re excited about him. I think he’s going to be really good. He’s better than his ranking.”
“Christian comes from an athletic family,” Self added in the release. “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.”
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“Mackey, that’s his middle name, that’s what he goes by, is a bonafide scorer," Self said. “If people would look up Issac McBride and YouTube it and see some of his highlights on how he scores, I mean they’re not high school points, those are real baskets with range and how he can just jump up and make a shot from anywhere on the court.”
“He’s really, really going to be a good hand for us,” Self said. “Both of them can shoot the ball and you can never have too much shooting, obviously.”
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@BShark We’re going to 4 out next year.
