Bragging Rights: Carlton Bragg Picks Kansas

Two weeks after bringing his second state championship to Villa Angela-St. Joseph, Carlton Bragg made his college destination official. The 6-9 power forward will become a Kansas Jayhawk.

On Jan. 8, Bragg invited fans, family and the media to the VASJ campus to announce his decision. With the beginning of the spring signing period running from April 15-May 10, Bragg signed the National Letter of Intent as soon as he was able on Wednesday.

"I just signed my letter with Kansas," Five-star power forward Carlton Bragg told Jayhawk Slant on Wednesday morning. "I'm excited to have signed my letter with Kansas and I'm looking forward to taking the next step. I'm ready to get to Kansas and get my career started.

"I felt all along that Kansas was the school for me," he added. "I never had second thoughts or questioned the decision that I made. Now that I've signed with Kansas, I'm excited about getting started. I'm excited about the future."

Rated as the nation's 21st-best prospect on the ESPN100, Bragg narrowed his college potentials to Kansas, Kentucky and Illinois before deciding on KU. A five-star player who averaged 21 points per game during his senior season at VASJ, Bragg was named the Division III Associated Press Ohio Player of the Year on March 24. Adding to that, Bragg is the 37th McDonald's All-American to sign at Kansas and will join Perry Ellis and Wayne Selden, Jr., as current McDonald's All-Americans on the Jayhawk roster.

"We're so excited to have Carlton on board," head coach Bill Self said. "Norm Roberts did a great job in working with Carlton and his family to become part of our KU family. Carlton has great family support with his mother Monica Howard and his uncle Ezra Stokes."

"Carlton is a legitimate 6-foot-9 inch, scoring and shooting type of power forward," Self said. "Certainly, he's one of the more skilled big guys that we've signed since we've been here. He comes from a great high school program with a great head coach in Babe Kwasniak."

During his announcement at Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School, Bragg, after sending out a special thanks to those people that continue to play a special role in his life, the Cleveland, Ohio, big man went public with his decision.

"With all of that being said, I would like to make my decision," said Bragg. "Next year, I will be playing at the University of Kansas. On my visit to Kansas, towards the last day, we went to Coach Self's house, so we all got together, and we were hanging out and stuff like that. I felt the brotherly love they had and I felt comfortable around the guys.

"That's when I knew that I could be at Kansas," he added. "That's when it changed."

Known for his length, Bragg is also on the radar for his work on the offensive glass, his finishes in transition, and his explosiveness around the rim. His endurance isn't too shabby either. Just hours after recording 12 points and a team-high five assists in the state championship game on March 28, the Cleveland native booked it to Chicago for the McDonald's All-American weekend.

While there, he finished second in the skills competition and third in the dunk contest in the Powerade Jam Fest on March 30 before scoring nine points in the MDAA-game on April 1. That game alone displayed his versatility with a breakaway windmill dunk and a long three from the perimeter.

"Babe was an assistant at UMKC and has done a great job with him," Self continued. "Another great coach and great mentor with him has been Mike Graves (former VASJ assistant). So with Babe, Mike and his AAU coach Michael Duncan (Ohio Basketball Club), they've done a great job in developing and mentoring this young man to the point where I think it will be a pretty seamless transition for him into Division I basketball."