Kareem making a rush for freshman honors

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Kareem Rush has talent. Just wait 'til Missouri's freshman smoothie gets an attitude. That's the way Quin Snyder sees it after a couple of sensational games that

Tuesday, February 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Kareem Rush has talent. Just wait 'til Missouri's freshman smoothie gets an attitude. That's the way Quin Snyder sees it after a couple of sensational games that earned Rush Big 12 newcomer-of-the week honors in the Big 12. "He really does have a calm demeanor," Snyder said. "That's been the knock on him, too. I'm encouraging him to play with more emotions."

The 6-foot-6 Rush spent all his life playing in the shadow of his older brother JaRon, who enrolled at UCLA two years ago. But now Kareem seems to be coming into his own and people are wondering if he, not JaRon, is the family's biggest talent.

In victories last week at Texas Tech and Kansas State, Rush averaged 25 points per game, including an eye-popping 68.3 per cent from the 3-point line. Putting more emotion into his game will help the still-developing kid raise his game to a much higher level, Snyder believes. "Not that he has to be jumping up and down and cheerleading," he added. "I'd just like for him to be a little more extroverted."

Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton, preparing to take his team to Missouri for a Big Monday game, was impressed with the freshman sharpshooter. "He's definitely one of the bright young players we have in college basketball," he said. "We looked at film, and he has a chance to become a great basketball player."

The Big 12 is actually brimming with outstanding freshmen. Kansas has Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison, who have all started at one time or another. And, among the others is Texas A&M's Bernard King who leads all conference freshmen in scoring. Coach Melvin Watkins knew King would have no trouble adjusting to college "the first day he walked on campus." "Sometimes his shot selection -- we've continued to work on that," said Watkins. "We've asked him to be a scorer and a leader, and that's quite a big assignment to ask of a freshman. He's been amazing that way."

Not surprising, however, is the fact that the three teams tied atop the conference standings -- Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma State -- are all counting mostly on non-freshmen to take charge. Two of the finest, Iowa State's Marcus Fizer and Texas' Chris Mihm, will clash Tuesday night at Ames in what's shaping up as possibly the most pivotal game in the Big 12's regular season.

The Longhorns and Cyclones were tied atop the league standings with Oklahoma State at 10-2 prior to the Cowboys' game Monday night at Missouri. Mihm, a 7-0 junior, and the 6-8 Fizer are probably the best two big men in the Big 12 and two of the leading contenders for conference player of the year. "That's going to be a war," Watkins said. "You know what Mihmis capable of doing, you know what Fizer's been doing. Both of those kids come out and play hard. It's going to be a battle of wills." "That will certainly be worth the price of admission," said Colorado coach Ricardo Patton. "You're talking about two future NBA players going at one another. Both have shown the ability to step up and make big time plays when their teams need it."

So who has the upper hand? "It's hard to say. The first five minutes and flow of game will probably dictate that," said Watkins. "If Mihm's got his low post game working, it's going to be a problem for them. But Fizer can step out on the floor, hurt you a lot of different ways."

There was no mystery as to who was the Big 12's player of the week. It had to be Colorado guard Jaquay Walls, who had 42 points in a victory Saturday over Iowa State, including a running35-footer at the buzzer that tied it in regulation. Against Texas A&M earlier in the week, Walls had 21 points. "It was a pretty phenomenal performance," Patton agreed. "We certainly needed him to step up and play big. It came right at the right time."