photo by: Journal-World illustration

University of Kansas basketball recruiting

High school juniors across the country received phone calls from the Kansas basketball coaching staff on Monday, the first day coaches were allowed to contact players in the 2022 recruiting class.

Some players received new offers. Some already had offers and were just catching up.

Here’s a quick look at a few of the players KU reached out to:

Jaden Bradley

A five-star point guard ranked No. 8 overall in the 2022 class by Rivals.com, Bradley is one of the handful of prospects who picked up a new KU offer on Monday, according to Rivals’ Andrew Slater.

Bradley currently attends IMG Academy. The Rochester, N.Y., native was the North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year in 2019-20 after averaging 23 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals per game.

Gradey Dick

The junior-to-be from Wichita, who is headed to Sunrise Christian Academy for the 2020-21 season, got a call from KU head coach Bill Self late Monday evening.

“It was just to touch base and show their interest in me because (it was) the first day that they can contact me,” Dick told Jacob Polacheck of Zagsblog.com. “It was just to build that relationship and keep building that.”

Ranked No. 32 in his class by Rivals, Dick is a 6-foot-7, 195-pound guard who can play multiple positions.

Mark Mitchell

The five-star prospect from nearby Bishop Miege told Rivals’ Eric Bossi that Kansas was one of the programs that reached out to him on Monday. Mitchell, who is ranked by Rivals as the No. 13 player in his class, already had an offer from KU and has made several trips to Lawrence during the past couple of seasons.

While his services will be in high demand in the coming months, Mitchell told Bossi he was happy to let the recruiting process play out naturally.

“I just want to see who all gets in touch,” Mitchell said. “I’m just trying to feel it out and get to talk to everybody who talks to me.”

Arterio Morris

A 6-foot-4 point guard from Dallas, ranked No. 18 in the 2022 class by Rivals, Morris also heard from the KU coaching staff on Monday.

Morris’ physical tools make him a top prospect, but his summer coach Erven Davis, who leads Dallas Showtyme, told Bossi that Morris had improved more than just his basketball skills recently.

“I think the biggest thing is his maturity level has gone way up,” Davis said. “Every time he’s been in the spotlight, he’s dominated and showed up and that’s propelled to him where he is now.”

Colin Smith

The 6-foot-7, four-star small forward from Dallas who has had a KU offer since 2018 also received a call from Self on Monday afternoon.

“It was just a check up call,” Smith told Polacheck. “He was just calling in just to let me know that he is heavily interested in me. We were just talking about everything that’s going on in the world and he asked me how I’ve developed as a player over the break. We just started talking about what’s going on at Kansas and that was about it.”

While Smith is looking for a program that’s suited to his skills, he told Polacheck that having the right relationships with the staff is key, as well.

“I want to know if a coach is going to back me up with what’s going on in the world,” he said.

Silas Sunday

Like Lawrence prospect Juju Ramirez, who picked up an offer from KU on Monday, Sunday is not yet ranked in the Rivals 150 for the class of 2022.

Despite that, the 6-10 center from the Bronx, N.Y., told Polacheck he received a call from KU on Monday.

“They just told me about the way they are able to work very well with big men and that they will start recruiting me,” Sunday said.

According to the Rivals database, Sunday currently holds offers from Illinois, Kansas State and Nebraska.