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On Dec. 9, 2016, Bragg had been arrested and charged with battery when the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office said he hit a woman and pushed her down stairs at a party.

Bragg, the former McDonald’s All-American and top 25 national recruit, was suspended indefinitely. His jail mug shot made the rounds on TV, newspapers and online as he proclaimed his innocence.

Five days later, not only were charges dropped when a surveillance video of the incident was reviewed by law enforcement, but the 20-year-old woman involved, in turn, was charged with battery herself.

Bragg says he learned how quickly people can turn on you when it appeared he no longer would be of any help to the basketball team.

A month later, he served a three-game suspension for a possession of drug paraphernalia charge that was later dropped through participation in a diversion program.

By the end of his sophomore season, he announced he would transfer from one of the nation’s blue-blood college basketball programs.

“My decision was it was just time to get up out of there,” Bragg said. “I did my two years there. I have good memories, but it was just about moving on.”

Bragg says he looks back on Kansas not with hard feelings or bitterness, but just a realization it wasn’t for him.

In May 2017, things were turning around, he thought. His son, Carlton Bragg III, was born in Tempe, Ariz., and Bragg was transferring to Arizona State. He and ASU agreed he could join the Sun Devils team, but only if he could meet a strict set of guidelines – standards other student-athletes at ASU or around the NCAA are not regularly asked to meet, Bragg said.

Bragg wouldn’t go into the details of what happened at ASU with the Journal, but acknowledges he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.

By December 2017, the university confirmed Bragg was no longer a student at ASU, though no team, legal or NCAA violations occurred, according to documents the Journal reviewed last month.

“It was a struggle then after (being dismissed at ASU),” said Bragg. “I didn’t know what do – what I wanted to do. I could have stopped playing. I could keep playing. It was just, my mind was just racing everywhere. It’s life. People go through things.”

Bragg says he never got depressed, but he was lonely.

Babe Kwasniak, his high school coach and still a close mentor, said Bragg needed structure again to get back on the path that made him a rising star at Villa Angela St. Joseph High in Cleveland.

“He was always great at handling adversity,” Kwasniak said.

“It was the success he couldn’t rebound from.”

Kwasniak acknowledged that “many of Carlton’s issues were self-inflicted,” and that while he made it to the top as a high school All-American, “his fall from the top was with alacrity.”

But Kwasniak never thought about giving up on his former player. The Army veteran who is known for coaching with discipline and guidance believed Bragg could flourish again with similar structure around him.

Through Lobos assistant coach Brandon Mason, Bragg started looking into playing at UNM. Kwasniak praises Lobos head coach Paul Weir for believing in himself enough to make a difficult and serious – but research-based – decision to bring on Bragg that he realizes could elicit criticism.

“A lot of adults used the kid and then bailed on him when he needed them the most,” Kwasniak said.

Bragg enrolled at UNM in January as a non-scholarship player weighing 268 pounds with a long list of specific expectations to meet before earning a scholarship or spot on the Lobos roster. Most of them had to do with academics and discipline, but also the grueling physical ones – including getting down to his current playing weight of 225 pounds.

Bragg, now a junior, has met them all.

“I think that when you go back and really do the background on him … there was a lot of good there that I believed in,” Weir said.

Now, Bragg, who turned 23 on Friday, has a hard time hiding his smile as he thinks about the opportunity to return to the court Sunday and prove the loyalty his high school and current UNM coaches showed him was worth it.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Bragg said. “You play with the cards you’re dealt. … All I can tell people who keep asking me why I’m here now is just … you’ll see. Everyone’s about to see.”

THE CARLTON BRAGG TIMELINE

• Jan. 8, 2015: Commits to coach Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks. • April 1, 2015: Plays in the McDonald’s All-American game in Chicago. • May 2015: Graduates from Villa Angela St. Joseph High in Cleveland • July 2015: Wins gold medal at the World University Games in South Korea • Nov. 13, 2015: Plays first game for Kansas • Nov. 11, 2016: Starts 2016-17 season opener for the Jayhawks • Dec. 9, 2016: Arrested and charged with battery. The Douglas County (Kan.) District Attorney’s Office said Bragg hit a woman and pushed her down a flight of stairs. He pleads not guilty and is suspended indefinitely by Kansas. • Dec. 14, 2016: The Douglas Country DA’s Office dismisses charges against Bragg and files a battery charge against the woman originally said to be the victim after police reviewed surveillance video of this incident. He returns to the Jayhawks’ roster. • Jan. 2017: Misses three games due to a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, for which he entered and completed a diversion program resulting in the charge being dropped from his record. • April 6, 2017: Announces he will transfer from Kansas • May 2017: Commits to play at Arizona State • May 2017: Son, Carlton Bragg III, is born in Tempe, Ariz. • December 2017: Arizona State confirms Bragg is no longer with the team. Both sides acknowledge it is a matter of his not meeting an expectation set forth when he first joined the team, but not a legal, NCAA or even a team violation. • January 2018: Enrolls as a non-scholarship student at UNM. • April 2018: Begins offseason practices with the Lobos. • August 2018: Begins fall semester classes with the NCAA ruling he has to complete the entire semester before being eligible to play Dec. 16, which is Sunday. • October 2018: UNM continues appeal to the NCAA that Bragg be eligible for the Nov. 6 opener. • Nov. 6, 2018: NCAA denies UNM’s appeal, though it grants Bragg a waiver to travel with the team to road games in case they change their ruling. (Normally, ineligible players cannot travel.) • Friday: Turned 23 and, with his final fall semester grade posted, is eligible to play. • Sunday: To make his UNM debut against Central Arkansas at 2 p.m. in Dreamstyle Arena – the Pit.

SUNDAY

Central Arkansas at UNM

2 p.m., AT&T SportsNet, 770 AM/94.5 FM