Recruiting Report: Even Brauns (2020)
There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Iowa City Regina’s 6-foot-8 power forward Even Brauns since the conclusion of his freshman season.
Currently, Iowa’s 4th-ranked 2020, Brauns caught our eye a while back, but other scouts from around the county, and a couple in-state D1 programs are noticing the big-man too.
“I’ve talked with Northern Iowa and Iowa. Northern Iowa has sent me a couple letters just asking about my game and my high school and my grades and things like that,” said Brauns.
“Iowa is definitely the front-runner with all that (recruitment) right now. They’ve invited me to come visit this fall, and to head to a couple football games. I’ve talked to their assistant, (Kirk) Speraw, and with Fran (McCaffery) a couple of times. They’ve really showed a lot of interest in me early, and I really appreciate that a lot. I’ll definitely be going down this fall to a couple games and checking it out.”
Still quite young, Brauns has three high school seasons and two grassroots seasons ahead of him before he’ll be donning a college uniform. But despite his relative youth, the sophomore big always has his future in mind.
“Every time I workout, I always have recruiting stuff in my mind. I always try and think about the things that coaches would want to see out of me in the future, and I’ll work on stuff that would impress the vast majority of coaches out there,” said Brauns.
Specifically, he’s been working to expand his game out to the perimeter. His goal is to become a stretch-four.
“Honestly, I’ve really developed my outside game, and I’ve really been working on my jump-shot since AAU has been over. And I feel like I really made myself more versatile with my offense, I can do more than I used to be able to,” said Brauns.
“After talking to a couple colleges, they want me to try and stretch my game out a little bit — so that’s really what I’ve been working on.”
He had plenty of opportunities this spring and summer with Iowa Barnstormers 15U to work on his game.
“I was mostly there for rebounding, blocking shots and getting rebounds,” said Bruans, who may have downplayed his role a bit.
“A couple times, I’d step up and score the ball a lot. I learned a lot this year, playing with new teammates, I had to learn how to play with them fast.”
After a stellar freshman season, in which he averaged 10.4 points on 60 percent shooting, Brauns will have a substantially bigger role this winter with the Regals.
“As a sophomore, I expect to play a lot better. I expect to produce a lot more offensively this year,” said Brauns.
“I’ll have a much bigger role as the focus of our offense. And that will put more pressure on me to come out each and every night and just do my thing. I’m trying to just be the focal point of the offense and do everything I can to help get us wins.”