Kansas City native, acknowledged KU fan, and ESPN.com draft guru Prof. Chad Ford asks about Wright’s draft preparation, last year’s Kansas team, the loss to UCLA specifically, Kevin Durant’s NBA potential (SPOILER WARNING: Wright thinks Durant will be really, really good.), and who Wright would prefer to be drafted by.

I am not entirely sure that this podcast is new (the interview itself is a few days old) nor am I entirely sure that this is not Insider content.

Apologies should either element of my confusion cause inconvenience.

The Journal-World’s lead story includes the following key quotes from Wright:

“Money has never been my motivation. It’s not my family’s motivation. It’s not about the money.”

“I feel I can advance my game playing at the next level.”

“I never really looked into anything about the NBA because it’s not what my focus was throughout the year. I knew it would not be good for the team. Nobody on the team is looking out for individual things. After the season unwound, I started looking into some things. The interest sparked from there.”

“My family has been doing a lot in terms of getting in contact with some people, not directly with any agents. No advisers, just me and my family and what’s in my heart.”

The Journal-World also has video of the press conference, a notes piece (including speculation regarding Brandon Rush’s impending decision), and a Tom Keegan column.

The Kansas City Star story includes this unique quote from Wright:

“This is hard. Trust me. It’s hard. It’s been my toughest decision ever.”

And this one from Bill Self:

“The reality is that things are probably going to work out really good for him. To be very candid, if I was Julian and I was in this situation, I’m not sure I wouldn’t make the very same choice. This is a good business decision.”

Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider) agrees that Wright has made a sound business decision:

“Wright would be taking a pretty significant risk by waiting another year. If he struggled to improve his consistency or his offensive prowess, scouts might quit talking about his upside and might start tearing apart his game next season. When you factor in injury, that’s a lot of risk for guy ranked No. 7 in our Top 100.”

DraftExpress.com has Julian 8th in their mock draft (which does not take team need into account).

NBADraft.net has Julian 9th in their mock draft. The extra player they have ahead of Julian is Yi Jianlian.

It’s official.

I think that the immediate and long-term financial benefits derived from a guaranteed contract make a compelling case for turning pro as soon as you’re a highly probable lottery pick. Nor is it a bad idea to turn pro in a year when Phoenix (58-19, 2nd seed in West), Detroit (49-27, 1st seed in East), and Chicago (46-32, 2nd seed in East) each project to have top-15 picks (as of today) in the draft.

I also think that, if you assume that Julian Wright has room to improve as a basketball player (and I do), it’s likely that he will improve more and at a quicker pace if he’s playing basketball professionally than as a student-athlete at the University of Kansas, playing (at most) 20-25 meaningful games in between limited practice time while taking a heavier-than-average course load in pursuit of early graduation.

Here’s Julian’s stats from the past two years.

stats glossary

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

He will be missed.

Also, Julian’s 06-07 stats in comparison with those from some other big men projected to go in the first round.

Julian Wright and Sherron Collins have been inducted into Luke Winn’s Style Archive for their matching shaved-in hair designs from earlier this year. Says Winn:

KU’s Chicago duo had matching patterns in the front-right portion of their close-cropped ‘dos in late January. KU readers: If you have any more information on the design’s significance, leave it in the comments.

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…)

Luke Winn interviews Julian Wright at SI.com.

LW: If the night before the Florida win was serious, what was the night after like in Vegas?

JW: We actually left right away. People were happy, but they were tired, too — it was a high-intensity game. We watched the tape on the way back, and even though we won, we knew we still had work to do, that it’s just a stepping stone to getting better.

LW: So you’re telling me no one wanted to pull an all-nighter on the Strip.

JW: I think a lot of guys wanted to stay a little bit longer, but it was a tiring trip. We didn’t even get back into our rooms until sunrise. Had we gone out [in Vegas], I would have been more scared for the staff than the players. (Laughing.)

Ed. UPDATE: Got to pull out this quote from the comments (thanks Harger):

My name is Tad and I love Julian more than anything in the world. Words can’t describe my passion
-Tad

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.”

“Sherron breaks down pretty much any defense,”

Friend of PB Mic points out this Gary Parrish entry on Sportsline and snips out the best part:

On another note, Wright said the pick-up games at Kansas this summer have been intense. He didn’t hesitate when asked for the name of one guy who has been impressive and could surprise with his impact on this team.

“Sherron Collins is looking exceptional,” Wright said. “His ball-handling is great. His quickness is great.”

Collins is a 5-11 freshman point guard from Chicago. He was a McDonald’s All-American.

“Sherron breaks down pretty much any defense,” Wright said. “He’s just smooth with the ball, and he makes everybody around him better.” On another note, Wright said the pick-up games at Kansas this summer have been intense. He didn’t hesitate when asked for the name of one guy who has been impressive and could surprise with his impact on this team.

Link to the rest of Parrish’s thoughts.

Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline writes a wonderful column today about Julian Wright. It’s a great read. Here’s the link.

Turns out Wright isn’t foolish, naïve or misleading. He’s mature, intelligent and honest. For every question he had a solid answer. For every answer he had a wonderful explanation. By the time I hung up the phone, I was convinced Wright was dead-serious, and I felt stupid for ever thinking otherwise.

Granted, he may be the exception to the rule.

But he is an exceptional exception.

“I can’t help but to play in the NBA someday,” Wright said. “But I’m not in any rush.”

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).

Pulled from the Wichita Eagle. Read the whole thing, but this particular bit his helpful for identifying Self’s core philosophy - you have to earn it. I think it also reveals one reason why last year was tough - he couldn’t make players he didn’t recruit appreciate his system as much.

You can argue forever whether Chalmers’ defense would have come around just as fast — or faster — if Self had started him from the get-go.

“I’m sure if you asked Mario, he’d say yes,” Self said. “But from our perspective, when you bring freshmen in, you’re not in it to win games in November and December. You’re in it to do what’s best over time and over their careers.

“If guys don’t fight through certain things and understand certain things, they’re not going to appreciate certain things. It’s better if you have to earn everything you get, especially early in your career when that foundation is laid.”

That is the lesson he has applied to all his young players, which the same as saying pretty much the entire team.

Link

In case you didn’t catch it in this morning’s LJW, Julian Wright described what most of us took to be nerves:

“Everybody in ‘Kansas basketball-land’ is probably telling me to slow down,” Wright said. “I understand that. I don’t get nervous. I just kind of get anxious and run all over the place. I just want to slow down and let the game come to me.”

Heh.