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Rebuilding year LAWRENCE | All day, the Kansas sun hid behind persistent gray rain clouds. But by 7:30 p.m., when Bill Self walked into his office at Allen Fieldhouse, the spring showers had stopped for good. Self, wearing an offseason sunburn and goatee, leaned back in his big leather chair and took his cue from the sunlight peeking through his blinds. It was time to put this hectic week behind him and think, well, sunny thoughts about Brandon Rush's injured knee. "The word is that for him to be totally active and playing, six months would be a gauge where he could be close to being himself," Self said. "But you could also take a month on either side of that. There's a great chance he could not miss a game." KU officially announced on Tuesday that Rush, a guard from Kansas City, had sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Self said that Rush will have surgery as soon as the swelling has gone down, which should be at the end of this week or early next week. Self's assessment that Rush could be ready Nov. 1 is certainly bright, according to Johnny Benjamin, the chairman of the department of orthopedics at Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach, Fla. Benjamin, whose group has performed arthroscopic knee surgeries on numerous professional athletes, took a gloomier outlook on Rush's recovery time based on past experience. "I think that's an optimistic time frame for Brandon," Benjamin said. "You have to remember the level of play for Brandon Rush. He's playing Jayhawks basketball, not local pickup league." Although pickup basketball did put Rush in this situation, out of the NBA draft and back at Kansas for his junior season. Rush, who has led KU in scoring and been selected to the All-Big 12 first team in each of his first two seasons, decided to test the NBA waters in late April. He would have been headed for the Orlando pre-draft workouts this week to cement his status as a first-round pick if not for the injury. Rush withdrew from the draft on Friday, and Jayhawk Nation rejoiced. But now there's a new question: How much of an impact can Rush realistically have on KU next season? Self's six-month give-or-take was only his best guess. No one really knows whether Rush will end up on the good or bad side of that figure, and Benjamin's thoughts are based only on his general knowledge of torn ACLs. "Playing shape ... six to nine months," Benjamin said. "Four months is when I ask the question, 'Will I let the guy rehab aggressively'? Four months is out of the question to play Kansas basketball. Out of the question." Watching Rush's drama play out from afar, Benjamin expects Rush to miss at least the first month of the Jayhawks' season, calling a December return a best-case scenario. Fast-forward the calendar nine months from early June, and that means that Rush wouldn't be 100 percent until March. Benjamin even threw out the possibility of Rush missing the entire season, the ultimate doomsday prediction for KU fans. "Usually, a year is what I consider the average time," Benjamin said. "Playing the next season. It all has to do with timing." The timing of Rush's injury could be rotten for KU, so don't book those plane tickets for San Antonio and next year's Final Four just yet. "I think it's going to be a happy ending," Benjamin said, "but the question is, 'For whom'? For Brandon Rush or for Brandon Rush and Jayhawks basketball? With the quality of ACL reconstructions now, Brandon Rush will have a happy ending. What about Kansas? That remains to be seen." Self cited the story of Lucas Johnson, his former player at Illinois, who recovered from an ACL in three months. Self said the Kansas doctors would take their time with Rush and that they would not allow him to play in a game until his knee was structurally sound. "With Brandon," Self said, "we don't want to do anything to take away his explosiveness." In a perfect world, Self said, Rush would return in November and play four to six weeks before becoming "the old Brandon Rush" in time for January. Benjamin, who has seen this scenario play out many times working with the Los Angeles Dodgers at their Vero Beach spring training home, wants to make sure people know that they might not see last season's Rush next season. "What I would feel comfortable saying," Benjamin said, "is that it's going to be a long offseason for Kansas basketball fans regarding Brandon Rush." To reach J. Brady McCollough, Kansas reporter for The Star, call (816) 234-4363 or send e-mail to jmccollough@kcstar.com
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J. Brady McCollough - jbrady@coveringsports.com (email) - 816-868-2621 (cell) |
