A 4 a.m. wake-up call Saturday was not Roy Williams’ way of punishing his Kansas University basketball players for back-to-back, double-digit losses in New York.

The No 2-ranked Jayhawks, who fell to North Carolina, 67-56, on Wednesday and Florida, 83-73, on Friday, had to rise before the sun to catch an early flight home.

Home is where the Jayhawks, who suffered consecutive double-digit setbacks for the first time since the 1982-83 season, will attempt to work out some kinks in time for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. home battle against Central Missouri State, followed by stern road tests Saturday at Oregon and Dec. 11 at Tulsa.

“We’ve got to go to work to figure out what we can do and do well,” KU senior forward Nick Collison said after scoring 35 points and grabbing 19 rebounds in the two losses.

“Last year it all came pretty easy – pass, pass, shoot, fastbreak. This year it’s taking a while. Right now we’re trying to play with what we’ve got and execute. We’re not executing at all.”

Lack of execution spilled all over the stat sheets.

Offensively, the Jayhawks hit 37.5 percent of their shots against Florida and 40.7 percent versus North Carolina while combining to make five of 25 threes.

Collison, KU’s All-America candidate at power forward, went 0-for-2 from the field the first half against Florida.

“They were playing zone. When I was getting the ball I didn’t make quick decisions with the double (team),” Collison said. “As a team we weren’t moving it. I need to move the ball and be patient that it’ll come back to me.”

He disagreed with a theory that KU had a tough time scoring simply because of the loss of three-point threat Jeff Boschee. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Kirk Hinrich’s shooting form was noticeably off – he made 2 of 11 threes in two games – because of back pain.

“The team can attack a zone in different ways,” Collison said. “If we don’t have shooters, we can at least move the ball. We weren’t patient. We’ve got to find a way to play without Jeff. He’s not here anymore.

“Drew Gooden is not here anymore. Right now we’re just trying to come together. Everybody else is, too. North Carolina is. Florida is, and they still beat us. We’ve got to find a way to play. We have a lot of work to do and a lot of time to do a lot of work.”

Defensively, the Jayhawks were burned by the three-pointer versus Florida – the Gators cashed 14 of 31 treys while hitting 45.5 percent of their shots overall.

North Carolina, which like Florida spread the floor, hit four of 18 threes, but had great success in taking it to the hole for some monster, backdoor jams. As far as the three-pointers, guards would penetrate then dish to open shooters on the perimeter.

“They really did a good job of getting inside,” sophomore guard Keith Langford said of the Gator guards. “It’s something we’re going to have to pick up with our effort in practice. Guys we’re going against are penetrating a lot more. We have to obviously get better at it.”

What’s more, KU received no punch from its bench in New York. The reserves scored four points against Carolina and eight versus Florida. North Carolina didn’t show much bench production either, defeating KU despite just seven points off the pine.

And KU had free-throw woes, making 10 of 16 versus the Gators after hitting 22 of 36 against Carolina.

On the positive side, the Jayhawks rebounded well, outboarding Florida 50-39, and North Carolina, 41-28.

And after showing little life versus the Tar Heels, the Jayhawks exhibited grit in slicing a 19-point deficit to two against the Gators before again getting buried by a barrage of threes.

“They are a good basketball team,” KU coach Roy Williams said of the Gators. “I think we are, too. We just need to bounce back from what we have done just the last four days.”

The Jayhawks, who lost their opener to Ball State last year and still made the Final Four, feel they have to make strides at practice.

“We just need to learn how to play with each other, bounce back with good practices,” said Hinrich, who will undergo tests on his back in coming days with results forthcoming on Monday. His back sprain is not believed to be serious.

Practices must improve for the Jayhawks to rival last year’s performance, Collison said.

“I think it’s been definitely more of a struggle this year in practice, more than say last year,” Collison said. “Last year we were a more veteran group and just never really had a problem. It was just constantly positive play every single day and this year we have not had that.

“Some days are good and some are not so good. So it’s definitely a lot different team than last year. It’s not as easy as last year, but we do have winners on this team. I think we will bounce back.”