I scored tickets to last night’s Washburn demolition derby, and while the Hawks looked pretty ragged for about half the game, I was ecstatic about the in-person glimpse at Brandon Rush’s recovery.

There can be no doubt that Rush is back on track toward his status as KU’s #1 game-changer. Watching Rush log his 12 minutes from about halfway up the bleachers, I was impressed by his smoothness and finesse. True, his timing is a little off, and my impression is that his explosiveness is not yet what it was–but on the occasions when Rush made moves toward to basket, there was no hesitation. None of the herky-jerky body mechanics that sometimes accompany major surgery.

This was especially true when Rush drove the lane for a soft floater. The drive was smooth, the decision was perfect, the tear drop barely grazed the bottom of the net.

When KU plays Northern Arizona next week, the Rush Watch should be in full effect again. If all goes well, I wouldn’t be surprised to see B-Rush have a major impact on the upcoming Arizona game. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be back near 100% in time for the conference season, and definitely in time for March.

I wouldn’t look to Andy Katz for tactical insight or high-level critical thinking, I think he understands this about himself as his ESPN blog (Insider) reads as a transcription of what people have said to him (no matter how ridiculous) in the last day or so.

From today’s blog (Insider):

Kansas coach Bill Self is still confident that Brandon Rush can return to play in games by Dec. 1 after having ACL surgery. He’s hoping to have him practicing by Nov. 1.

It may be plausible. It may or may not be true, but I’m confident that Bill Self said that to Andy Katz.

Per KUSports.com:

“Sources within the Kansas University men’s basketball program Thursday evening confirmed that sophomore Brandon Rush, KU’s leading scorer this season, has declared himself eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft.

Rush will not yet sign with an agent, leaving the door open for him to return for his junior season.

Rush, who will soon turn 22, had expressed concern that he’d be a 23-year-old rookie if he were to stay another year.”

UPDATE: Jason King of the Kansas City Star has a terribly dull and brief (though EXCLUSIVE!) interview with Rush, plus quotes from his mother, Glenda, and his former summer league coach John Walker.

stats glossary

Points, assists, turnovers, blocks, and steals listed per 100 individual possessions

Brandon Rush’s stats while at Kansas:

Brandon Rush’s 2006-07 stats along with those from comparable players who have entered the 2007 NBA Draft (Arron Aflalo, Morris Almond, Corey Brewer, Daequan Cook, Jeff Green, Alando Tucker, Marcus Williams, and Nick Young):

Brewer and Green are, in my opinion, clearly better NBA prospects than Rush who will have to differentiate himself from Afflalo, Almond, Cook, Williams, and Young to be assured of being taken in the first round.

I think that Rush’s combination of defensive ability and shooting range would be an immediately useful fit for a number of teams. But, were a team looking for immediate or long-term offensive help there are arguably better options, especially Daequan Cook.

I’m generally not a big Seth Davis fan, but his latest Hoop Thoughts hits the nail on the head with regard to the Jayhawks:

This is still a Bill Self-coached group, so you know they play some mean D. … There is also something to be said for having a variety of different weapons to keep opponents off balance. … But in order to win an NCAA championship, a team at some point will need a great escape. (Think Danny Ainge, Tyus Edney and Christian Laettner.) When that critical moment comes, be it in the first round or the Final Four, whom will Kansas turn to?

Then he goes through the potential candidates.

Brandon Rush?

…has been shooting pretty well the past month, but the word is out that he is not a good ball handler. That makes him easy to defend in the half-court — and he knows it. Plus, Rush does not have the mentality to take over a game in a tough spot.

Julian Wright?

a dynamic athlete, but his forte is passing and he does his best scoring in transition, not in the half-court.

Russell Robinson?

mentally tough, but he is averaging just 6.8 points … and making 41.1 percent of his shots

Mario Chalmers?

has the skills to take over … but apparently lacks the moxie to demand the ball like [Acie] Law did [on Saturday]

Sherron Collins?

The one player with the skills and the moxie to be a go-to guy … But it’s hard to imagine a freshman taking on that role, even if he is from Chicago.

Out of all of these choices, Chalmers and Collins have the least standing between them and “go-to player” status. They have the skill sets, they just need a little attitude (Chalmers) or experience (Collins). There’s been a growing sentiment on this site that Collins needs to be the man with the ball in his hands at the end of the game, and I’m beginning to agree. From the looks of it, I think Seth Davis is as well. (Now if we can just get Bill Self on board…)

Andy Katz’s nice profile of Brandon Rush leads ESPN.com’s college basketball coverage today. Personally, I’d be surprised if Rush was Kansas’s best player this year. His perimeter shooting, defending, and defensive rebounding will be crucial but I expect Mario Chalmers, Julian Wright, and (later in the season) Sherron Collins to initiate most of the offense.

Behind the Insider wall, Katz suggests that Darrell Arthur will probably start the year behind at least Wright and Kaun in the rotation but figures to take on a bigger role in the second-half of the season.

Also, Bill Self compares the last two NCAA Tournament games Kansas has played.

“Bucknell had two or three guys who could have started for us, they were well coached and it was a scary game.”

“But we played to our age against Bradley. We weren’t under duress. We didn’t play with pressure, since we weren’t hunted all year. Last year’s team was better equipped to go longer in the tournament, but it still didn’t surprise me how it ended. We were so loose at shootaround that day, but by 9 p.m., we went out for warmups and I said, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ I had a totally different feel.”

Mike DeCourcy has some advice for the superstars of tomorrow, and BRush gets a little writerly advice:

Brandon Rush, Kansas: attacking. In order to make a point about a certain player’s needing to be more aggressive on offense, you’ll sometimes hear a television analyst — or even a coach — say the guy in question has to be “more selfish.”

Wrong. It’s not selfish for LaDainian Tomlinson to run forward with a football while a bunch of guys block for him. It’s Tomlinson’s job. He gets the glory, but that’s the game. And so it is with Rush. His first job is to score, and 13.5 points per game for a player with his skills (47.2 percent on 3-pointers) getting his minutes (31.7 per game) isn’t enough.

Rush has to be hungrier. The best way to show he has changed is by driving the ball into the lane, not by simply taking more shots. He attempted only 71 free throws last season — one every 14.7 minutes. Only one Jayhawks regular shot free throws less frequently.

Good advice methinks.

Thanks to reader Michael for sending this in. KU’s own Brandon Rush is a pre-season All American, at least to Dick Vitale.

My guess is that he’ll be getting a lot of attention for this honor if DV is saying so.

Here’s the rest of his selections:

FIRST TEAM
C: Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina

F: Joakim Noah, Florida

F: Brandon Rush, Kansas

G: Arron Afflalo, UCLA

G: Jarrius Jackson, Texas Tech

SECOND TEAM

C: Glen Davis, LSU

F: Josh McRoberts, Duke

F: Corey Brewer, Florida

G: Alando Tucker, Wisconsin

G: Ronald Steele, Alabama

THIRD TEAM
C: Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh

F: Nick Fazekas, Nevada

F: Jared Dudley, Boston College

G: Chris Lofton, Tennessee

G: Taurean Green, Florida

FOURTH TEAM
C: Roy Hibbert, Georgetown

F: Al Horford, Florida

F: Richard Roby, Colorado

G: JamesOn Curry, Oklahoma State

G: Sean Singletary, Virginia

FIFTH TEAM
C: David Padgett, Louisville

F: DJ White, Indiana

F: Curtis Sumpter, Villanova

G: Brandon Heath, San Diego State

G: Dominic James, Marquette

SIXTH TEAM
C: Jermareo Davidson, Alabama

F: Joseph Jones, Texas A&M

F: Marcus Williams, Arizona

G: Adam Haluska, Iowa

G: Kammron Taylor, Wisconsin

This is draft buzz, pure and simple, so enjoy it until it turns out not to be true:

Kansas freshman small forward Brandon Rush is thinking about testing the draft process again. Remember Rush tested the process last year and had a solid performance at the Chicago Predraft camp. He is in a unique position with the ability to test the process for a second time due to the NBA’s rule, which allows high schoolers that have tested before an additional withdrawal.

Rush considers himself a lottery pick right now. But NBA scouts NBADraft.net spoke to say he’s a bubble first rounder at best

Luke Winn explores the importance of individuals to teams in a column today. I was surprised to find Brandon Rush in his list at #6.

I think the miserable performance at UT probably hurts him the most, but it’s still an interesting exercise.

Check it out.

All-Bellwether Team
Which players’ scoring averages differed the most between wins and losses?
Rk. Player Team Conf. Rec. Avg. in wins Avg in Ls Diff.
1 Richard Roby Colorado (9-7) 23.7 13.1 10.6
2 Steve Novak Marquette (10-6) 23.9 14.5 9.4
3 Paul Davis Michigan State (7-8) 20.4 11.6 8.8
4 Devan Downey Cincy (8-8) 13.5 5.3 8.2
5 Chris Lofton Tennessee (12-4) 19.9 12.8 7.1
6 Patrick O’Bryant Bradley (13-8) 15.6 8.6 7.0
7 Brandon Rush Kansas (13-3) 16.4 9.7 6.7
8 Dee Brown Illinois (11-5) 17.2 10.8 6.4
9 Adam Haluska Iowa (11-5) 15.8 10.2 5.6
10 Cameron Bennerman N.C. State (10-5) 17.6 12.0 5.6

Feb. 15, 2006
Weekly Men’s Basketball Press Conference Quotes

Head Coach Bill Self

On Missouri guard Thomas Gardner:
“We have to guard Gardner this time. Last time he only got about three or four good looks that he made, and the other times we were there. He just played unbelievably well. I’m not sure we’ll change a lot. I think we’ll try to force him to take bad shots and limit his touches. Hopefully, we’ll do a better job collectively on him than we did last time. Last game, he was as good as anyone in America that particular night.”
(more…)

Well, that was pretty ugly. Really ugly. Really really really ugly.

But we won.

Why is it that teams from Oklahoma play so ugly?

I’m miffed. I thought our defense was good, but I thought we really had trouble executing for such a long part of the game. That had a lot to do with the fact that Robinson and Wright were out for the end of the first half when we let them back into the game.

Curry had a good game and I’m betting that Hoopinion’s stats will show that he was more productive than usual.

Speaking of productive, Brandon Rush had 9 shots in 39 minutes. Marcus Dove is a good defender, but I’m betting he could have gotten more shots.

It’s really nice to be able to see KU’s scores on ESPN’s scoreboard without having to dig through the (almost entirely subscription) site to get to the Big 12 scores.

We outrebounded them 40-25.

We had 16 steals.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with this win. Once again, this team has shown that over the course of 40 minutes, we’re very hard to beat. We just pulled away in the end once they got worn down. I think we’ll see at least one tournament game when a team tries to make it ugly - and succeeds for 32 minutes -but loses by 10. Another solid win for the Baby Jays. Vegas and all the Power Ratings were suggesting a 3-4 point win, and we pull away by 15.

Despite how ugly the game was played and how much the referees sucked the momentum right out of the game, I’m smiling like a guy who just watched the Jayhawks win by 15 in Stillwater.

I mean seriously, if I had told you we won by 15, would you be happy or not?

Can I get a Witness?

I didn’t think this game was that dangerous, but we really let off the defensive intensity for the first 12 minutes of the second half. We cannot afford to do that moving forward if we expect to make a run in the NCAA tournament.

Check out the line on our three freshmen: 52 points, 23 rebounds, 10 assists, 7 steals and 4 blocks. Best class in the nation? I think you could make argument.

Nice to see DJ and CJ have good games as well.

We looked really good against a zone in the first half, but I was disappointed with our ball handling and poise for most of the second half.

Chalmers is really coming into his own. Before the season, I was hoping he could be a Daniel Gibson figure for us. I wouldn’t trade Chalmers for Gibson right now. That floater is just remarkable and it makes our whole offense so much more efficient.

Maybe it’s just my crimson and blue aviator goggles, but it looked to me like Blalock and Co. were throwing some cheap shots during the second half. I like how Iowa State makes our point guards (see Aaron Miles and Russell Robinson) get juiced up to throw down.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the continued emergence of Julian Wright and Brandon Rush. Those guys are so tough when they’re on the court together and they really do everything. They make KU very difficult to prepare for.

If we can play disciplined basketball and keep up the intensity for 40 minutes, there’s really nobody in America we can’t beat. I’m hopeful that Self can fire up the Baby Jays to give the proverbial 40 minutes of Hell. If so. Look out March, and keep an eye on April.

On a side note, Mike Davis didn’t coach Indiana today, and his team (or former team) managed to lose at home. Very concerning for me was the ‘black-out’, a grass-roots protest against the fact that Davis was still the IU coach.

Shame on you IU fans. If I had any say in the matter, I’d yank the season tickets of any deadbeat fan that participated in the black-out.

Lucky for you, IU doesn’t ask me.

A few interesting notes from the game:

# Kansas is shooting 76.5 percent (114-of-149) from the charity stripe over its last six games.
# Kansas shot 50 percent from the field for the sixth time in its last eight games and 10 of its last 14 (11 times overall).