ROSEMONT, ILL. ? It can be argued that the Sports Illustrated jinx had nothing to do with Kansas University’s loss to Oral Roberts. A case can’t be made that Saturday afternoon’s ugly loss to DePaul had nothing to do with the sophomore slump.
On an afternoon when the Jayhawks needed 6-foot-6 sophomore Brandon Rush to be at his best, he played his worst game as a collegiate player, scoring three points in a 64-57 loss to DePaul at Allstate Arena. Blue Demons senior guard Sammy Mejia, who scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, repeatedly made Rush look bad defensively, as well.
Two plays perfectly captured Rush’s bad afternoon. First, early in the second half with nobody challenging a three-foot shot on the right side of the lane, Rush put it too high off the board, and it clanked off the front of the rim.
The other signature play of Rush’s forgettable afternoon came during Mejia’s personal run of eight consecutive points, when he rallied the Blue Demons (3-4) from a 53-50 deficit to a 58-53 lead. DePaul’s Wilson Chandler, checked by Julian Wright, drove from the right wing and toward the foul line. Rush dropped off Mejia to try to stop Chandler’s dribble. The instant Rush did so, anyone in the building paying attention knew how that play was going to end up, with the ball back in Mejia’s hands and ultimately swishing through the net for three points.
Rush made just one of seven field-goal attempts overall and one of four from beyond the arc and missed his only free-throw attempt.
“I missed a couple of layups, a lot of wide-open shots,” Rush said. “They were going in and out. One of those days.”
The last one of those days, if Rush can learn to contribute more when shooting poorly.
“Really good players have got to figure out a way, a little bit, and he’s got to do a better job of that,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “He’s not been off to a good start by his standards. Today, he never got into it. He had numerous opportunities to.”
He earned preseason all-Big 12 Conference honors, which was a springboard for a bit of a reach that landed him the dubious honor of being named a first-team preseason All-American. There was a time in college basketball when players coming off big seasons as freshmen would struggle early in their second seasons, and it would be explained away as a “sophomore slump” or a “sophomore jinx.” It was even said about Magic Johnson early in his second and final year at Michigan State, one that started poorly and finished with a national title.
Those terms have faded away because so few stars stay for four years anymore, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still apply.
“Sam Mejia played like a senior, and I couldn’t be happier for him,” DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright said. “It was good to see him when it really mattered do what he needed to do.”
Wainwright’s halftime adjustment of inserting the taller, more physical Jabari Currie in the backcourt in favor of Cliff Clinkscales paid dividends and resulted in better penetration.
Meanwhile, Rush followed a bad first half with a much worse second one.
Kansas needs someone to take over close games late the way Mejia did. Rush hasn’t demonstrated the ability to be that player, so Mario Chalmers might need to assume that role.
