Rolling out of bed at 6 a.m. every day for conditioning drills, weightlifting, pick-up games, classes and tutoring can take its toll on a Kansas University men’s basketball player.

Just ask KU senior guard Michael Lee, who remembers experiencing total exhaustion during Boot Camp 2003, Bill Self-style.

“I went to bed right when I got home,” said Lee, mentally preparing himself for today’s 6:25 a.m. start of Boot Camp 2004, which, like last year’s camp, is expected to last two weeks.

“I’d get in my bed at 6 in the afternoon, and I was asleep in my coat, boots, hat and everything. I’d wake up at 2 in the morning, look at the clock and go right back to sleep.

“That’s no lie either,” Lee added.

Responding to alarm clocks early in the morning proves to be one of the most difficult parts of Self’s boot camp, designed to prepare the Jayhawks mentally and physically for the Oct. 15 start of the season.

“A lot of us don’t function well that early in the morning,” Lee said. “After so long, it takes a toll on your body. Simple stuff like doing jump rope … everybody knows they can jump rope. At 6:30 in the morning, you’d be amazed how many of us look like we’d never done it before.”

Players dare not hit the snooze button on their alarms too many times during the next two weeks. If one player is late, everybody pays the price with extra running and calisthenics.

“The toughest part,” junior Christian Moody said, “is getting over that mental edge, waking your body up and having to get moving and get the blood flowing that early, keeping your mind right to concentrate and get through stuff.

“It’s 45 minutes of Hell Week every day,” Moody added.

Daily boot-camp sessions don’t end at 7:30 a.m., either.

“It’s not just about workouts in the morning,” KU assistant coach Tim Jankovich said. “It’s doing everything perfectly for the amount of time boot camp lasts. You can’t be late for a class, a workout or a tutoring session.

“You miss anything, and, as a team, there’s consequences. The week is planned out, but at any minute it can change.

“While we are conditioning the heck out of them physically,” Jankovich added, “we’re also conditioning them to be 100 percent responsible and accountable to each other. Maybe that’s the biggest benefit of all.”

The Jayhawks did pay for some unnamed players’ transgressions during Self’s first KU boot camp.

“If one person oversleeps,” Self said, “the whole team gets it.”

In terms of running, running and running some more.

“The lowlight (last year),” Moody said, “was people using the trash can to throw up in and us having to run for those not making their times. The highlight was everybody making through the 30 suicides the last day.”

Yes, boot camp went in like a lion and out like a grizzly bear last year. The Jayhawks ran up and down the court until they almost dropped while completing 32 “suicide” sprints on the final day of camp 2003.

“The best thing about it was when we were done,” Lee said. “When we ran our 30 suicides on the last day. That was the best feeling ever. Everybody was happy, smiling, tired, sweating, but it felt good to be done.”

The joy of accomplishing such a difficult task is one of the reasons Self has held boot camp at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois and KU.

“It’s not just about conditioning. It’s about getting your mind right, doing things you think are too tough to do,” Self said. “You realize you can do it for two weeks. It is hard, but not impossible.

“It’s nothing to fear, but I’m sure some will. Tough guys don’t fear too much.”

Privately, some of the Jayhawk may have been hoping boot camp would be called off this year, considering KU already has had 10 practices and played four exhibition games in Canada in accordance with NCAA foreign-tour rules.

Not the case. Boot camp starts today.

“We are a little further along this year because of the Canada trip,” Self said. “But we’ve got to get tougher for sure, get to do things our bodies don’t think they can do.”

Though they aren’t necessarily looking forward to camp, the players admit it’s necessary.

“Yes, it’s needed,” Lee said. “I know we went to Canada and got a good head start, but nobody is in the shape they need to be in to go through the season right now, let alone play two or three games in a row. We’re not in game shape yet.”

Added Moody, “It’s a team bonding experience, and that’s a good thing.”

As long as no one is too sleep deprived.

“I will be going to bed early the next two weeks,” Moody said. “I need my sleep. I hope the coaches need their sleep, too. I don’t know if they like getting up early, but I know they like the results.”