Former KU guard Tyon Grant-Foster’s magical season at Grand Canyon comes to close

Former Kansas Jayhawks basketball guard and 2022 NCAA champion Christian Braun of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets has been following this year’s Tournament closely.

In fact, the brother of KU senior forward Parker Braun took to social media site X on Friday to recognize one of his former Jayhawk teammates.

“Best player in the tourney is on truTV right now,” Christian Braun wrote on the site formerly known as Twitter.

Braun was referring to 6-foot-7, 210-pound Grand Canyon University senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster, who scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 39 minutes during GCU’s first-round NCAA Tournament victory over Saint Mary’s on Friday before a loud, loyal contingent of Antelopes fans in Spokane, Washington.

Grant-Foster’s remarkable senior season ended on Sunday. The former Schlagle High standout, who played at KU during the 2020-21 season after spending two years at Indian Hills Community College — where he earned honorable mention All-America honors — scored 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds (with three blocks and two steals) while playing 39 minutes in a 72-61 second-round loss to Alabama.

The 24-year-old Western Athletic Conference player of the year was asked about Christian Braun’s kind social media post during media availability Saturday in advance of the GCU-Alabama game.

“I knew C.B. way before I even went to Kansas. We’ve been friends for a long time. He’s one of my best friends to this day. That’s just been one of my best friends for a long time. That’s how that relationship happened,” Grant-Foster said.

Grant-Foster met Blue Valley Northwest standout Christian Braun during Grant-Foster’s ninth-grade year of high school and Christian’s eighth-grade year. Tyon also became close with Christian’s brother, Parker, another BV Northwest standout, as well as Columbia, Missouri Rock Bridge High point guard Dajuan Harris through both high school and AAU basketball.

The Braun brothers and Harris, in fact, helped recruit Grant-Foster to KU after Tyon’s breakout sophomore season at Indian Hills.

Grant Foster played in 22 games at KU in 2020-21, averaging 3.1 points and 2.2 rebounds. In search of more playing time, he decided to transfer to DePaul, where he collapsed in the locker room at halftime of his debut game with the Blue Demons.

Diagnosed with a heart condition, Grant-Foster played in just that one game the entire 2021-22 season at DePaul, then sat out the 2022-23 campaign while working out in Kansas City.

After getting cleared by doctors 16 months after collapsing at DePaul and undergoing two heart surgeries, Grant-Foster signed to play for Grand Canyon in April of 2023.

“Just because I couldn’t play doesn’t mean the dream ever went away,” Grant-Foster said ahead of the NCAA tourney.

GCU coach Bryce Drew, who took a chance on signing Grant-Foster, said Saturday: “He’s grown as a player. He’s grown as a person. He’s grown in his faith and right now we think he’s playing his best basketball. I’ve been really pleased with his consistency throughout the year. Not playing in two years, we thought there might be some big inconsistency in his play.

“But he’s gotten really good scoring from day one, and he’s just developed a more all-around game. He’s rebounding better now, making some really nice passes out on the court, and he’s a big reason obviously we are where we are.”

The No. 12-seeded Lopes on Sunday rallied from a 10-point deficit to lead No. 4-seed Alabama with six minutes to play. But they fell short after failing to score in the final 4:40.

“I just feel like the connectivity that we had, that didn’t leave the whole game. We knew we had a chance to win that game,” Grant-Foster said in the interview room after Sunday’s contest.

“Everything that we did we were doing it for each other. Nobody was doing something trying to just win the game. We all were together,” he added.

Of a large contingent of GCU fans that traveled from Phoenix to root on the Lopes during the NCAAs, Grant-Foster said: “It means everything to me, really. Just the support and the care that they have for us is unwavering. No matter where we at they’re going to find a way to get there, so I love that so much.”

Of his year at Grand Canyon, which included the team winning a school-record 30 games and claiming its first NCAA Tournament win in three tries, he said: “I gained 14 brothers and they are going to ride for me for life, just like I’m going to ride for them. So I’m going to take that from this experience.”

Drew, in an interview with Cronkite News, called Grant-Foster, “fearless, and that’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve admired about him, is never once has he had any doubt about playing or thought about his condition. It’s just really remarkable, his mental toughness and his approach that he’s coming to the season with.”

Grant-Foster says he’s “super blessed” to have surfaced at GCU.

“Just because of everything that has happened in my life and I just can’t do anything but thank God,” he said. “It’s just a blessing to be here.”

Thanks to this season, he’s listed (by SI.com) as a possible second-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

“With the size to play multiple positions at the NBA level, Grant-Foster could operate as an off-ball guard or even a traditional wing. Especially if his 3-point shot improves, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be at minimum signed to an undrafted free agent deal this summer,” wrote SI.com. “The one thing that may hinder his draft stock is his age (24), but even then his skillset is worth it for NBA teams.

“Emerging as one of the best players in the country, the 6-foot-7 wing has proven he has an NBA skillset. As good of a person as he is a player, any team would be lucky to add him in June’s draft. He’s the cousin of NBA player Ish Wainwright and could be following in his footsteps very soon.”