MU All-American having his problems this season

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Last season, Kareem Rush toyed with defenses, flicking in 3-pointers or driving the lane seemingly at will.

This season, nothing much is going right for Missouri's preseason All-American. Rush was 3-for-13 and scored eight points in Saturday's 60-53 Big 12-opening victory over Nebraska and seems to be having a crisis of confidence.

Rush, a junior who led the conference with a 21-point average last season, is shooting only 33 percent the last five games. The disappointment is starting to show on his face.

"Yeah, man, it's hurting," Rush said. "But hey, it's part of the game. I'm going to continue to play hard and be the player I know I can be.

"If the shot never falls, it never does, but I know it will."

Rush appears to be making all the wrong decisions lately for the 17th-ranked Tigers (11-3, 1-0), who play at Iowa State on Wednesday night. He'll take on a triple-team and suffer the consequences, or forgo the drive when he has relative isolation and clank a 3-pointer.

Even an air ball

Rush, who also had an air ball on Saturday, has never endured such a stretch of ineffectiveness, and it seems that all coach Quin Snyder can do is wait for the misery to end. On Saturday he complained that Rush wasn't getting proper respect from the officials after Rush went only 1-for-2 at the free-throw line.

Rush also could help himself by driving more, and then perhaps pulling up for short fadeaways when the defense collapses.

"He's got to keep putting pressure on the defense," Snyder said. "Sometimes when he gets to 8, 10, 12 feet, he can rise up and shoot over the top of somebody instead of trying to go too deep.

Rush has shot only four free throws the last two games. Against Illinois on Dec. 22, he never made it to the line.

"I need to draw more fouls and I thought I could have gotten to the line a lot more," Rush said after the Nebraska game. "I thought I got fouled on three or four plays and I could have been at the free-throw line and maybe that would have helped my stroke."

Being the go-to guy at Missouri is nothing new to Rush. But the dynamics have changed.

The complementary player he perhaps misses the most from last season is departed point guard Brian Grawer. Wesley Stokes, who inherited Grawer's job, is nowhere near the 3-point threat that Grawer was, and that's limiting the Tigers' options when Rush has to kick it out.

Opponents know Stokes lacks confidence from beyond the arc, so they lay off him, and that puts more pressure on Rush and Clarence Gilbert, who also has been struggling.