Jayhawks gather in gym for 6 a.m. practice today

By Gary Bedore     Nov 21, 2014

Kansas University’s basketball players were in the practice gym bright and early this morning in an attempt to improve on Tuesday’s 32-point loss to Kentucky.

The Jayhawks congregated at 6 a.m., and were to return this afternoon for a two-a-day Friday.

“We didn’t get a lot done yesterday so we had to finish up today,” KU coach Bill Self said at today’s weekly news conference. “We had to finish up today what we didn’t get done yesterday.

“We had a good practice this morning. Guys’ attitudes are good,” he added.

The problem with Thursday’s workout?

“Yesterday’s practice did not go well, not because of anything other than the fact I thought there was very little sense of urgency compared to what I thought we should have because of the way we performed on Tuesday,” Self said. “We practiced this morning at 6 a.m. and we’ll practice this afternoon, not as punishment. We’ve got to get better. Hopefully that will be the case.

“It’s a long season. It’s too long a season to put too much stock in a game that obviously was an opportunity for us to look better than we did. Let’s just call it like it is. We weren’t ready to play that game.”

Self, who has been thinking a lot about his team since the Kentucky game, soon will start scouring tape of Rider, Monday’s 7 p.m. foe.

“I can stay up late just as easy as I can get up early,” he said, admittedly dragging a bit at noon today. “One thing about 6:00 a.m. practices that I failed to realize, is it sucks for the guys, but I think it actually is worse for the coaches. That may be something I want to adjust moving forward.”

Of today’s early-morning practice, Brannen Greene said: “It wasn’t too bad. We got in there. We got better. It was tough though waking up that early in the morning. Practice yesterday was definitely pretty tough too. We understand we have to get better. What happened (against UK) was embarrassing.

“He (Self) was a little disappointed we didn’t come with the energy he expected (at Thursday practice). We got the practice done this morning,” Greene added.

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