**-I guess first of all, I owe everyone an apology** for _The Greene Room’s_ recent absence. You know how it is, along with vacations comes the readjustment period once back in the real world. Now that that’s out of the way, though, lets get back to business…**-So we’ll never truly know what happened on [Julian Wright’s blown dunk attempt Saturday][1] against Colorado**, which earned him 7:51 of quality time with some towels and his padded seat on the bench.Actually, we probably shouldn’t even call it a dunk attempt, as the ball never even got above his waist. More like a turnover. But anyways…Bill Self after the game made an accurate point, in saying that it was just an example of Wright trying to make something spectacular happen instead of following the beaten path, keeping it plain and simple.Though Wright’s words were never offered up, as he was kept from speaking with the media. We’ll get back to that in a minute, but here’s another observation.If you watch Julian Wright play basketball close enough, he sweats a lot. Seriously, by the time warmups are over, you can practically see the gleam from Tonganoxie, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s just how his body works. There’s no way to confirm whether this had anything to do with the ball flying from his hands or not, but wouldn’t it maybe be a good idea to get the kid some wristbands?If you didn’t see it live, and you happened to miss the spoof on both of ESPN’s sports banter programs Monday afternoon – _Around the Horn_ and _Pardon the Interruption_ – [here you go][2]. (_PTI’s_ [Michael Wilbon][3] even went as far as to call the attempt and the subsequent lying on the floor ‘lame’)From seeing that botched play slowed down, it’s clearly apparent that the ball didn’t hit off of his knee or anything. On looks alone, it came from his grip on the ball. It might be worth it to have him slap a couple of wristbands just below the base of his hands, [much like Brandon Rush does][4]. Couldn’t hurt.**-As far as Julian Wright being kept from the media,** it was somewhat disappointing, and that’s not just because it would have been an interesting sound byte.It would have been a learning experience for Julian Wright, facing the fire after making what even he would probably call one of the poorest of poor on-court decisions.I remember back to the movie _[For Love of the Game][5]_, which is a solid baseball flick starring [Kevin Costner][6] (heh, go figure) on a last-place Detroit Tigers team.There’s a scene in the movie where he flashes back a few years ago to when their light-hitting rightfielder lets a fly ball go off of his noggin and over the wall for a homerun. While Costner’s character, Billy Chapel, and his humiliated teammate are the only two left in the clubhouse after the game, he tells him that he can either go out there, do a little song and dance and be a running joke on ESPN, or he can go face the media with a straight face and with pride. He finishes by saying something along the lines of ‘Don’t help them make a joke out of you.’It would have been interesting to see the face Julian Wright would have put on Saturday afternoon – whether he would have played the game or taken a higher road. It was one thing for him to be asked about it after Monday’s [76-56 win over Nebraska][7], but it would have been much more telling to see how he handled the situation just an hour after it took place.Instead, the last memory of Wright in that game is his sprawling on the floor as the teams headed off the court for a television timeout.**-Moving to the topic of fellow sophomore Brandon Rush**, the amount of NBA scouts in attendance at Allen Fieldhouse lately has to get you thinking about who’s going to stay and who’s going to go.And when the Detroit Pistons’ [Joe Dumars][8], who is the team’s President of Basketball Operations, tags along with one of the club’s scouts to watch [Kansas play Colorado][9], it means they’re looking at someone pretty hard.That someone could possibly have been Rush.Most fans look at him as maddeningly inconsistent, sometimes lax on the offensive end, yet undeniably solid on the defensive side of the ball, continually able to lock down the opponent’s top scorer.But in my book, he’s the most NBA-ready.His defense not only is why he’s the most likely player to bolt after this year, having the most to offer to an NBA roster at the time being, but he is also likely to enjoy a lengthy pro career because of it. Even if he’s not drafted that high, he’ll stick around because of his ability to stick to top scorers with his hands and feet.If you disagree, answer this question: What’s the difference between the potential NBA career Brandon Rush could have and the one [Bruce Bowen][10] has already had?For tale-of-the-tape purposes, Bowen is in his 11th NBA season, and his sixth with the San Antonio Spurs. Rush is 6-foot-6, 210 pounds, long and athletic. Bowen is 6-foot-7, 200 pounds, long, athletic and 14 years his elder.Bowen played four seasons at Cal-State Fullerton before bouncing around the CBA, making a few random stops in the NBA and then finding a home with the Spurs. In his four seasons at Fullerton, Bowen averaged 11.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, which are very Rush-like numbers (14.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg in 22 games this season). But Bowen is no go-to scorer, having averaged 6.5 points per game over his career, though his accuracy from both the field and three-point range hovers right around a respectable 40 percent. Bowen, though, makes his bread on defense, having been on the NBA’s All-Defensive Teams each of the past six seasons, the last three as a first-teamer. He’s not looked to to carry a team on offense, rather take care of the opponent’s top perimeter scorer night in and night out, and in turn be a fifth or sixth offensive option.True, no one knows whether Rush will be an NBA player 11 years from now. Just a comparison to think about.**-Lastly, I’ve got to get a couple of words in on this whole Border War topic.**People can whine and complain at this point all they want, but what’s done is done, and the annual gridiron grudge match Kansas and Missouri on the football field [will be played on neutral turf][11] for at least the next two seasons.If I had my guess, it’d be longer than that, but that’s for for another time and place down the road.While the money ($1 million guaranteed to both sides both years) is the major talking point among fans, what has been neglected is the impact this could have on the field.If you look at KU’s track record in recent history, their bowl fate in 2003, 2005 and 2006 was decided each time in the final week of the season. Along the way in ’03 and [’05][12], the Jayhawks scored huge wins over the Tigers at home. What’s to lead anyone to believe that next year will be any different as far as the importance of the season’s final game goes.Forget the whole ‘gameday atmosphere on The Hill’ argument, because even though it has validity, the point is that if KU enters the game at Arrowhead with, say, a 6-5 record (or Mizzou does so when it is the home team in ’08) and proceeds to lose, where will the blame go? This rivalry may not have impact on the national collegiate scene that many think it does (how much of the country saw the game on ABC this year is a testament to that), but one thing is for certain – homefield advantage is always important.Who knows, it could wind up costing jobs down the road if the chips fall in a certain direction.Until next week, take care.**_KUSports.com editor Ryan Greene can be reached at rgreene@ljworld.com, or by phone at (785) 832-6357._** [1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/jan/28/wrights_misslam_symbolic/?sports_columns [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3fWwtB9GJ4 [3]: http://espn.go.com/eoe/wilbon_bio.html [4]: http://worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2006/02/21/KU_Chalmers_Rush_copy_t600.jpg [5]: http://imdb.com/title/tt0126916/ [6]: http://imdb.com/name/nm0000126/ [7]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/jan/30/creamed_corn/?mens_basketball [8]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Dumars [9]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/jan/28/no_laughing_matter/?mens_basketball [10]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Bowen [11]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/jan/22/border_war_move_arrowhead_2007_and_2008/?football [12]: http://www.kusports.com/news/archive/story/115877
