Christian Braun discusses having multiple Kansas City players on Jayhawks Final Four team

The Kansas Jayhawks torched the nets on Saturday night to get past the Villanova Wildcats in their Final Four matchup, 81-65. The Jayhawks have a number of players on their roster from Kansas City, including sharpshooters Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun. Against Villanova, Agbaji put together his most spectacular shooting display of the 2022 NCAA Tournament, pouring in 21 points on a scintillating 6-of-7 from beyond the arc. Performances like that one are exactly why so many people have projected him as a first round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Leading up to the Jayhawks National Championship Game appearance on Monday night against the North Carolina Tar Heels, Christian Braun recently talked about how cool it is to have two local guys leading the Jayhawks to college basketball’s biggest stage.

“Absolutely, it’s really cool to see what Ochai’s doing this year. He’s worked really hard. And to watch him grow and watch what he’s doing on this stage is great for him,” Braun said. “But we take a lot of pride, a couple of Kansas City guys just doing what we’re doing and doing it for Kansas, I think it means a lot to us because of the name on our jersey. So yeah, being from Kansas it means a lot to do it in the Kansas jersey and just to accomplish what we’re accomplishing and just to watch him accomplish what he has accomplished this year it’s been great.”

Agbaji is an excellent reason for players to not hit the transfer portal and instead stick it out with one coaching staff to help their development. He stuck it out through the past four years at Kansas under Bill Self and his coaching staff and it’s paid remarkably massive dividends.

His freshman year, he was only averaging 8.5 points per game and only made 30.7 percent of his three-point attempts. Now, as a senior, he’s averaging 18.9 points per game, while connecting on 41.1 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Agbaji turned himself into one of the best players in college basketball and that maybe wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t stuck with the process and stayed with the same coaching staff to develop his game.

Braun has also been critical in the Jayhawks Final Four run. He’s nailed a number of clutch three pointers in their past few games. Braun helped to put the Villanova game out of reach with just under three minutes left, drilling an off-balance three as the shot clock buzzer sounded to put Kansas up for good, 75-59. He also poured in 12 points against the Miami Hurricanes in the Elite Eight, connecting on 50 percent of his shots from three-point range. The sharpshooter has been hot from deep for most of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

The Kansas Jayhawks and North Carolina Tar Heels face-off for the 2022 National Championship on Monday night. The game will be nationally televised on TBS. Tip-off time is set for 9:20 PM EST.