Congrats to Christian Braun on winning the 2019 DiRenna Award as the top high school basketball player in the KC metro! @kcprepbball @KUHoops @Ballin25Braun pic.twitter.com/Q4JgDAQXek
— Jason Lamb (@JasonLambKSN) April 12, 2019
For the second year in a row, a future Kansas Jayhawk has hoisted the DiRenna Award trophy, given out annually to the top high school basketball player in the greater Kansas City area.
KU signee, Christian Braun, of Blue Valley Northwest, brought home this year’s honor, following in the footsteps of current Jayhawk Ochai Agbaji.
“Congrats CB,” Tweeted BVNW coach Ed Fritz after Braun won the award. “You make us all proud.”
First established in 1954 by Dr. James A. DiRenna, the award has recognized the top male and female basketball players in the Kansas City area for decades, with names like Jaron and Kareem Rush, along with Clayton Custer recently winning the award.
After DiRenna’s death in 1996, his son, Dr. James A. DiRenna Jr., carried on the legacy and paired with the Greater Kansas City Basketball Coaches Association to keep the honor rolling.
Braun, a 6-foot-7, 190-pound shooting guard who signed with KU in November, led the Huskies to a 27-2 record and the Class 6A state championship this season, averaging 27.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game, including 16 points and 10 rebounds in the title-game win over Washburn Rural High.
He also was named the Gatorade Boys Baksetball Player of the Year for Kansas and was a two-time all-state selection during his 1,000-point prep career.
Braun is one of two future KU players currently signed in the 2019 class — Little Rock, Ark., point guard Issac McBride is the other — and the Jayhawks currently have four scholarships available to hand out in the 2019 class with Charlie Moore, K.J. Lawson, Dedric Lawson and Quentin Grimes all electing to move on from the program in the past couple of weeks.
