KU’s Carlton Bragg ear-marked as breakout candidate for 2016-17 season

By Matt Tait     Sep 7, 2016

article image
Kansas University freshman big man Carlton Bragg gets a shot up during warm-ups, prior to the Jayhawks' exhibition opener against Pittsburg State, on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, at Allen Fieldhouse.

Of all of the sophomores in all of college basketball, Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn believes the one guy ready to make the biggest leap might reside in Lawrence, Kansas.

In the eighth edition of Winn’s Sophomore Breakout Formula, KU’s Carlton Bragg landed at the top of the list of players who could be in for a monster season.

Here’s the way Winn comes up with the list:

*- The Sophomore Breakout Formula identifies scoring potential in players who didn’t put up significant points as freshmen, yet had promising advanced-statistical profiles. The formula strives to avoid too-obvious selections, and therefore its 2016-17 picks are restricted to players that averaged single-digit points last season and played not much more than 20 minutes per game. -*

[The happy-go-lucky Bragg’s][1] averages of 3.8 points in 8.9 minutes a season ago put him right in the wheelhouse of the kinds of players Winn is looking for with this formula.

[The list is short][2] and aims to identify only those players who truly stand to make a meaningful jump from what they did as freshmen.

There’s no doubt that Bragg is aware of the opportunity that awaits. The Cleveland native has been working as hard as anybody on his game this offseason and has added serious bulk to his lanky frame, a move that should help him be more productive — if not dangerous — all over the floor during the upcoming season.

Winn is far from the only person who expects big things from Bragg this season. The expectation in and around Lawrence is that Bragg will both start and star in his new role with the Jayhawks and his prep coach, Babe Kwasniak, said after a visit with his former player earlier this summer that [Bragg was in for “a monster season.”][3]

Here’s what Winn had to say about Bragg, heading into his second season as a Jayhawk:

> There’s opportunity galore in the
> Jayhawks’ frontcourt, as departed big
> men Perry Ellis, Jamari Traylor,
> Cheick Diallo and Hunter Mickelson
> combined for 59.1 minutes per game
> last season. Bragg is the obvious heir
> to Ellis’s face-up four role, and in
> short stints as a freshman, Bragg took
> a higher percentage of Kansas’s shots
> than everyone other than Ellis and
> guard Wayne Selden Jr., who’s also off
> to the pros.
>
> The Jayhawks’ go-to-guys are likely to
> be on the perimeter-veteran point
> guards Frank Mason and Devonte’
> Graham, and possible No. 1 NBA draft
> pick Josh Jackson can all score-but
> coach Bill Self’s offense isn’t going
> to abandon the post. Bragg should get
> plenty of touches, and his
> small-sample efficiency thus far in
> the post (he had a team-high 1.41
> points per possession there last
> season) and as a spot-up shooter has
> been encouraging. He added 26 pounds
> of muscle this off-season to better
> handle the physicality of the Big 12,
> and it’s easy to envision his scoring
> average increasing from 3.8 as a
> freshman to double-digits as a
> sophomore.

[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2016/jul/07/happy-face-carlton-bragg-jrs-smile-belies-competit/
[2]: http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2016/09/07/breakout-sophomore-formula-carlton-bragg-donovan-mitchell
[3]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2016/aug/11/prep-coach-believes-bragg/

PREV POST

KU football heads into Week 2 with even more hop in its step

NEXT POST

49382KU’s Carlton Bragg ear-marked as breakout candidate for 2016-17 season

Author Photo

Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.