Even Brauns returned home expecting to play on the court of his dreams. Yet minutes on the floor at Carver-Hawkeye Arena have been sparse for the Hawkeye big man who hails from Iowa City. After years of watching Iowa men’s basketball from the stands, Brauns was now viewing action from the bench. Since arriving on campus prior to last season, Brauns averaged less than five minutes per game, scoring more than five points just twice.
An aspiration was technically accomplished, but no one could blame him for having a lingering yearning for more. Brauns came to Iowa after having the best collegiate season of his career, and now those numbers are a distant memory, regretful reminders of what could’ve been if he stayed.
“He had every right to be frustrated with his playing time,” head coach Fran McCaffery said.
When Brauns entered off the bench in Iowa men’s basketball’s 80-78 loss to Oregon on Wednesday night, his emotions may as well have been etched on his white arm sleeve. But frustration wasn’t one of them. The Hawkeye exuberated moments of passion offset by a collected confidence on his way to a season-high 15 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor.
“Credit to my teammates, they helped me get good looks,” Brauns said in his postgame press conference. “I’m not known as a guy who’s going to give you a ton of points, but I took what they gave me.”
Brauns’ gratitude for the guys around him extended beyond on-court assists. Without his teammates, the 6-foot-9 center said he might have lost faith in his abilities, the ones that got him back to his hometown in the first place.
A four-year letter-winner at Iowa City West High School, Brauns was ESPN.com’s No. 2 Iowa recruit in the class of 2020. The next season, Brauns moved more than 500 miles away to Nashville, Tenn., playing for the Belmont Bruins in the Missouri Valley Conference.
After earning one start in his first two seasons, Brauns started 29-of-30 contests in 2022-23, averaging 7.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists while shooting a team-best 58 percent from the floor. He notched double-digit scoring 10 times. Finding his name on the stat sheet was a foregone conclusion as his squad went 21-11. Perhaps he wanted a challenge, but Iowa would be an uphill battle when Brauns transferred there prior to last season.
With starter Owen Freeman a lineup mainstay on his way to Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Brauns saw just 3.6 minutes per game in his first season back in familiar territory. This season was more of the same, as Freeman made up the frontcourt alongside Ladji Dembele and Riley Mulvey. But Brauns didn’t mind the competition, he relished it. His hometown team was a proving ground, never letting him feel complacency.
“This is one of the hardest-working groups I’ve been around in any capacity,” Brauns said of the Hawkeyes. “We’re just ultra competitive in practice, we’ve got a great locker room that really picks each other up. It’s hard to play at this level.”
“[Brauns] just keeps plugging,” McCaffery added. “He comes to practice, plays as hard as he can. Smart, knows what we’re doing.”
With Freeman out for the season with a finger injury, opportunity arose for Brauns, but he found himself battling among other candidates such as Mulvey and Dembele. Brauns saw double-digit minutes in three of the four games since Freeman’s absence, but scored a combined 12 points. Heading into the contest with the Ducks, his last double-digit scoring game was a little more than two years ago.
Brauns crossed that threshold with a made free-throw in the second half. His routine – a deep breath followed by two dribbles – predicated a 7-of-9 performance from the foul line. McCaffery said he wanted Brauns to be more aggressive in Freeman’s absence, and winding up at the charity stripe was a natural byproduct.
Scoring hasn’t been the main factor of Brauns’ game during his career, and while Wednesday night featured his highest performance in the Black and Gold, he didn’t neglect the intangibles. He blocked Oregon’s Keeshawn Barthelemy to close the first half and was more than willing to sacrifice his body on screens. Nothing to it for a 23-year-old living out his dream.
“Whether I’m playing five minutes or 20,” he said. “I’m going to play as hard as I can until I physically cannot play anymore.”