A polite people-person, Bill Self has yet to lose his cool when asked a recurring question about his 2003-04 Kansas University men’s basketball team.

The question: Why don’t the Jayhawks run anymore?

“The reins are not on these guys. Don’t think we want to run half-court offense,” Self calmly told a concerned caller to his weekly radio show.

“I’ve coached long enough to know the game is getting easy baskets. You try to get them and try to keep your opponent from getting them. It’s how you win and lose games.”

Self pointed to obvious reasons fast-break buckets had been hard to come by for the Jayhawks (6-2), who have outscored their opponents 75.5 points a game to 64.2.

“We want to run. The thing is, to run, you’ve got to rebound,” Self said. The Jayhawks average 39.2 boards per game — the lowest mark (if it holds up) since a 36.1 rebound average in 1992-93.

“You will not run nearly as fast if you spend 60 seconds on the defensive end as opposed to 25 or 30 seconds, which has happened way too much because we’re giving up second and third shots.”

Aside from rebounding, another way to get the engine revving is to play intense defense and force turnovers.

As far as effectiveness on the break, once the Jayhawks do grab a rebound or make a stop … the results have been mixed.

“In transition, we have to pitch ahead,” Self said. “Aaron (Miles) has to do a good job of pitching ahead and let Keith (Langford) create on his own before the defense gets set. We want to get Keith out in the lanes and J.R. (Giddens) out in the lanes.”

Self stressed the Jayhawks wanted to push the ball, yet never will resemble last year’s squad, which averaged 82.7 points per contest. The reason, in part, is that KU no longer has Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison, who Self said were among the best transition players in the country.

“We are not going to be a transition team like last year,” Self said. “Aaron was excellent pushing it. We’ve got to get some guys to run with Aaron, and Aaron has to do a better job of pitching ahead. Last year you could pitch ahead to Kirk to shoot a three, the year before to (Jeff) Boschee to shoot a three. This year we need to pitch ahead and attack the basket. We have tried to do some things to isolate Keith and give him some driving angles.”

KU has not resembled Kansas City speedster Maurice Greene in running the first several seconds after opponents’ made baskets.

That could be because the Jayhawks, who allow 64.2 points a game (which if it held up it would be KU’s stingiest mark since a 63.0 ppg mark in 1980-81), are trying harder to prevent made baskets.

“Last year everybody said Kansas was the best team in America at taking the ball out of the net and attacking the other team. Our philosophy is not let it get in the net, not let them score because if they don’t score, they can’t beat you,” Self said.

“We probably do not want to shoot it as quickly as they did in the past — be patient, reverse the ball and give the big guys a chance to touch it inside.”

Ball reversal is going to be a key if KU is able to get its halfcourt high/low offense in gear.

Self said contrary to popular opinion, the high/low was not designed just for one big man at the top of the key to feed another big man down low for layups.

The high/low places perimeter players like Langford and Giddens in position to score off the catch or dribble with the look of a motion offense. There are several entry passes available, each consisting of multiple options for all five players on the floor.

Options include post-ups, three-pointers, backdoor layups and lobs — options that should work once the Jayhawks catch onto the first year coach’s system and start to execute proper cutting and screening and reading the defense, as well as shooting and passing.

“We’re not a good passing team right now — not yet,” Self said. “We haven’t been setting screens. Our offense is designed to set a lot of screens, but that’s not the only thing we’re not doing. We’re not feeding the post. We’re not posting strong. We’ve not shot well yet.

“When you share the ball and totally give of yourself, then the scoring comes. It is so much easier when you are helping each other as opposed to everybody being on an island.”

Next chance to show improvement is Monday’s nonconference clash against 4-5 Binghamton University of New York. Tipoff is 7:05 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks will tangle with Villanova at 7:05 p.m. Friday at Allen Fieldhouse before beginning Big 12 Conference play a week from Monday at Colorado.

• Clinic today: KU’s players will hold their annual holiday hoops clinic from 9:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. today at Allen Fieldhouse. The clinic, for boys and girls grades 3-8, costs $55. Registration is at the south end of the fieldhouse from 9 a.m. to 9:45 today. Further information is available on kuathletics.com.