In no hurry to leave the gym after a productive three-hour practice, Kansas University basketball players Aaron Miles and J.R. Giddens wrestled playfully against a wall Tuesday afternoon at Horejsi Center.

Miles, the winner of a quickie Greco-Roman match, celebrated with Keith Langford as other Jayhawks chatted with coaches or shot on the side.

KU basketball continued to resemble one big, happy family a day after coach Bill Self indicated his Jayhawks — 3-1 entering tonight’s game at 7 against 4-0 Fort Hays State — lacked team chemistry early in the 2003-04 season.

“Chemistry on the court,” Self stressed Tuesday, noting everything was fine off the court.

“You watch us play right now, we don’t trust guys to be in the right spots. We don’t trust guys to get us the ball when we’re open. To me, that’s chemistry. We’ve not played as a cohesive unit. Even against TCU (a 85-66 win, which preceded Saturday’s 64-58 loss to Stanford), I think we made shots. I’m not sure we executed well. I don’t think it’s anything unusual early in the season. It’s certainly not anything I didn’t expect.”

The Jayhawks’ questionable chemistry showed in a six-assist, 19-turnover outing against Stanford.

“It (chemistry) is a lot better off the court than on the court as far as guys knowing mentally what another guy is going to do, what he’s thinking,” Langford said.

“I think last year we had a lot more (chemistry) than that, but we’ve got five new guys stepping in playing who didn’t play last year. It’s expected. It’s going to take some time. I’m patient.

“You can’t win the Big 12, the Big 12 tournament, the national championship the first month of the season, the first two months. I am not worried about it that much,” Langford added.

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He said the key to this team was defense, not offense.

“We’ve got to play better defense. It’s the bottom line,” Langford said. “We’ve got to be tougher. We’ve got to initiate contact instead of accepting it. Forget offense … forget shooting … if we stop them from scoring, we win.”

If it’s any consolation to KU, some other teams in the country have suffered a loss or two early on. Perhaps they’ve had some on-court chemistry woes, also.

“I’d say (7-0) Georgia Tech probably hasn’t and maybe a couple other teams haven’t,” Self said. “Duke definitely did. Michigan State has and UConn has. It’s nothing unusual,” Self said.

In fact, last year when national runner-up KU opened 3-3 … “I think last year’s Kansas chemistry probably wasn’t as good as it is now,” Self said. “They’re 3-3 with a lot of returning guys off a Final Four team, go to New York and still score 55 in game or whatever it was (in 67-56 loss to North Carolina).

“Although I don’t like it, you see those things early in the season and you also see them in conference play the second time you play a team.”

Since the Stanford game, Self at practice has looked closely at a lot of KU’s players, including the seldom-used Omar Wilkes and Nick Bahe.

“We’ve tried to give everybody a chance to play we feel could help make our team better,” Self said, noting he didn’t plan any major shake-up to the lineup, the only change Jeff Graves for Wayne Simien if Simien’s slightly strained groin doesn’t feel close to 100 percent tonight.

“Some guys have done well. The bottom line is we’ve got to have the starters, plus Jeff (Graves) and Jeff Hawkins … those guys all need to play. They are the core guys. You get hung up getting some other guys minutes, which is good, but still the core seven or six have to be the guys.”

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Self on the progress of KU’s freshmen: “I think when we have a nice blend of upperclassmen it is much easier to throw the freshmen in there and let them go. I don’t like the sink-or-swim method. I think David Padgett is prepared to do that, but J.R. Giddens should be brought along a little slower. By January both of them will be outstanding freshmen and will be recognized as two of the top freshmen anywhere.”

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Final take on Stanford game: “We didn’t play like we are capable. Sometimes the stars don’t align right and that was one of those days.”