I have made references to the fact that I thought Brandon should come back to school, work on his slashing game, shot and defense and declare next year with a distinct possibility of being a lottery pick. Well, someone must have been feeding him the same advice as he is now coming back to Lawrence to play one more year for Coach Self. This might be a big reason why we only gave Chase "preferred walk-on" status instead of going after a bigger name recruit that would have required a scholarship that we are now unable to give out. I think that this puts us back in the Championship picture, as we now have one of the best backcourts in the country (BRush, Super, RR, SC, Tyrell) and a good enough frontcourt. While SC was the most important player coming into the season, I digress that statement and now say that Darrell Arthur's improvement and whether he can become the post presence that we need is the key to the season. Anyways, more on that later for now let's C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E! Brandon is coming back to Lawrence for one more season, hopefully it will an exciting one...
Much more on this developing story to come, make sure and stop by RCT later on for some updates.
ROCK CHALK!
UPDATE: It is starting to come out that this "knee injury" played a bigger role in him coming back to school than originally anticipated. Plus, according to Brandon's brother JaRon Rush (KU fans have great memories of him right...) Brandon tore his ACL. I knew that it would be more serious than a bump or bruise, but a torn ACL is more serious than I had hoped. Still, he should be able to come back at full health for the season, and it's still great news to have him back in Lawrence.
UPDATE #2: While Brandon hasn't said anything official yet, the torn ACL story is looking pretty likely. And with a torn ACL, Brandon could be out four to six months. He is having the surgery on June 6th, which means that he could be back anytime from early October (unlikely) to early November (November 1st is supposedly his targeted return date) to late November/early Decemeber even, meaning he would miss a handful of games. I'm confident that he will be ready for the season opener, but how he plays is a different question and one that we won't know the answer to until the first game of the year.
More updates to come...