Rush’s agent familiar with KU

By Gary Bedore     Apr 25, 2008

Brandon Rush has hired an agent who is quite familiar with Kansas University basketball.

Mark Bartelstein, CEO and founder of Priority Sports and Entertainment, also has represented former KU guard Rex Walters and big men Danny Manning, Scot Pollard and Eric Chenowith.

Bartelstein, who founded the Chicago-based company in 1985, believes he has a first-rounder on board in 6-foot-6 Kansas City, Mo., native Rush, KU’s leading scorer on the 2008 national title team.

“We’re really excited. We think Brandon will be a terrific pro player. What he did this year … I would use the word ‘remarkable,'” Bartelstein said Thursday in a phone interview.

“Coming back from a torn ACL … to do what he did in a short period of time, I don’t think I’ve seen that before. The level he will get to in the next 12 months, I think, will blow people away.”

He says his new client has what it takes to play in the league.

“To have a guy that size and athletic as he is and able to shoot it the way he does, we think he is first round,” Bartelstein said.

Rush – who according to KU coach Bill Self has fulfilled his academic responsibilities for the semester and will not hurt KU in the APR ratings – arrived in Chicago this week and has started Priority Sports’ pre-draft program.

Rush will work out with a basketball-skills coach and strength-and-speed coach in twice-daily sessions leading up to the June 26 NBA Draft. Bartelstein said Rush would attend the pre-draft camp May 27-29 in Orlando, Fla.

“He will go but probably not play,” Bartelstein said. “Everybody will have a chance to see him. Then he will do some workouts (for individual teams) in June.”

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Series set: KU has agreed to a home-and-home series with Temple University.

The Owls will meet the Jayhawks next season in a Dec. 20 matchup at Allen Fieldhouse. KU will meet Temple in 2009 at Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, home of incoming KU players Marcus and Markieff Morris.

KU will travel to Arizona and Michigan State next season and also meet Tennessee in Allen Fieldhouse and UMass in Sprint Center in the Jayhawks’ annual non-guarantee games. KU also will compete in the CBE Classic, which will include a pair of home games against yet-to-be-determined schools. Other major schools in the event that concludes with two games in Sprint Center: Florida, Washington and Syracuse.

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