May 25, 2007, 22:00 GMT
Lawrence, KS - Kansas guard Brandon Rush has withdrawn his name from the NBA Draft and will return to the Jayhawks program for his junior season.
'Brandon and I met earlier (Friday) and he told me that he was withdrawing his name from the 2007 NBA Draft and will return to Kansas for his junior year,' Kansas head coach Bill Self said.
Rush averaged a team-high 13.8 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Jayhawks last season as Kansas won the Big 12 Conference Tournament before falling to UCLA in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
'Brandon has handled the process exactly the way the system was designed and has followed through with everything he said he would do,' Self added. 'I know in his mind he wanted to do this from a personal standpoint to investigate, but he never lost sight of the fact that he was going to make a smart decision that was based on his well-being for a career and not just the immediate future.'
'Throughout the process I have been able to give this much thought,' Rush said. 'I appreciate the cooperation I have received in finding out about how the NBA teams feel about me right now. I thought all along that I would more than likely return to school, but it was something I needed to find out about.'
Rush, who suffered a knee injury recently, is a two-time All-Big 12 first team honoree and was a John Wooden Award All-America selection and a Naismith Award finalist in 2006-07. He has led the Jayhawks in scoring each of his first two seasons.
'People will think the reason I am returning is because I injured my knee playing in a pickup game,' Rush said. 'That is not true, but it did re-enforce to me that the time was not right to go to the NBA.'
© 2007 The Sports Network
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