What is the next step for five-star SF Kendall Brown?

Last week, Kendall Brown, the 6-foot-7, 200-pound small forward from Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kan., narrowed his list of schools down to 10. When the dust finally settled, Kansas, Arizona, Arkansas, Baylor, Illinois, Marquette, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Virginia were the programs left standing for the No. 14 ranked player in the 2021 class.

Originally from Minnesota, Brown, the No. 5 ranked small forward in the class, made the decision to narrow his list of schools in order to take the next step forward in his recruitment.

On Wednesday afternoon, JayhawkSlant.com reached out to Courtney Brown, Sr., the father of Kendall Brown, to get an update on where the process stands.

“He’s been thinking about it (trimming his list) for a while,” Courtney Brown, Sr., told JayhawkSlant.com on Wednesday afternoon. “He really just wanted to get the next step out of the way. You know, a lot of the school’s kind of fell off and were no longer contacting him, so we just decided to cut the list down and drop the schools that you don’t hear from anymore.

“We decided to concentrate on the schools we’re hearing from,” he added. “Yes, Kendall is very pleased with where his list stands. What we always wanted was a good variety of schools to pick from. You’ve got high-major offers from every Power Five conference. He’s got a good group. He’s got the national champs in there and other schools where Minnesota kids have come from.”

Before narrowing his list of schools, Brown was considering scholarship offers from Kansas, Arizona, Arkansas, Baylor, Illinois, Marquette, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio State, Virginia, California, Creighton, Iowa, Iowa State, Milwaukee, Saint Louis, Texas, Wake Forest, Wisconsin, and others.

For Brown, narrowing down his list of schools to a more manageable number wasn’t necessarily easy, but in his mind, it was time to take the next step forward.

“You’ve basically just got to take the emotions out of it,” said Courtney Brown, Sr. “You’ve got to find the best fit that’s going to help you get to where you want to go. If you grew up having a favorite team, is that favorite team going to help you get to the next level?

“Once you take the emotion out of it, it’s simple and pretty easy,” he added.

If you’re wondering what the next step in the process is, the answer to that question is quite simple. Having already visited a few schools, Brown, when life returns back to normal, is looking forward to getting out and taking some additional visits.

However, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), nobody knows when those visits will take place.

“He’s visited Kansas unofficially,” he said. “He’s also been to Marquette officially and Ohio State officially. Yes, absolutely, as soon as we can get out and see more schools, we’ll finish up his visits. Kansas officially, Minnesota officially, Arizona officially – whenever that is lifted, that’s the first thing we’ll do.”

Growing up a Kansas fan, Brown is no stranger to Bill Self and the University of Kansas men’s basketball program. He’s been on campus several times, sat courtside inside Allen Fieldhouse and continues to communicate with the coaching staff.

“He’s been on campus a few times,” he said. “Just playing in that atmosphere, Kansas people love the Jayhawks. We haven’t really been able to do too much because of the virus. He likes the coaching staff at Kansas and likes the atmosphere.”

With not much else to do, Brown is taking every opportunity to work on his game and working in the weight room.

“I have a weight room at my house and he just benched 225-pounds, which is a pretty big bench mark for a 17-year-old. We’ve also got a hoop in the backyard, so we’ve been doing pretty much everything here.

“Getting shots up in the backyard and lifting in the house,” he added.