A Missouri Tiger hasn’t infiltrated Kansas University’s men’s basketball practices.
Jayhawk junior guard Brandon Rush is the player who has been wearing a yellow jersey daily at Allen Fieldhouse and Horejsi Center.
“Mario teases me about it. He calls me a little bumblebee sometimes,” Rush said Monday, referring to teammate Mario Chalmers. “I don’t know who came up with it. It just means to be cautious around me.”
Rush, who had right ACL surgery on June 1, was cleared to begin practicing with no contact on Oct. 22. He has been taking part in drills with teammates, who have been instructed to steer clear of him and are reminded of that decree by the yellow jersey.
“We tell him it should be a pink shirt ’cause of him being kind of soft,” senior guard Jeremy Case said jokingly. “We know he can’t do contact yet, but we kid him about wearing pink since we can’t touch him.”
Clearance for contact figures to come sometime this week or next.
“In the very near future. It’s certainly not going to happen the next couple of days,” KU coach Bill Self said. “It won’t be 100 percent (contact). He won’t be thrown in ready to play. He’ll be thrown in ready to practice.”
And at that time :
“He’ll have the yellow jersey on, kind of like a football quarterback. He may get hit a little bit (but) guys will be aware when he’s in the area, maybe let him go a little bit,” Self said.
“From a confidence standpoint, we’ll let that continually build. He hasn’t shown any signs of being tentative when he’s out there. He’s not as quick as he was. Nobody expected him to be. Hopefully a month from now he’ll be close to that.”
Rush will not play in Thursday’s exhibition opener against Pittsburg State (7 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).
“I can’t play, but I’m still excited for the guys. I’m going to be there cheering for them,” Rush said.
