Kansas University’s men’s basketball players are focusing on much more than the next opponent – Pepperdine – this week.

The Jayhawks (4-4), who have a nine-day lapse between games, have been cramming for final exams, just like all other students on Mount Oread.

The Jayhawks have been practicing about 90 minutes a day since Saturday’s victory over California; the NCAA-mandated day off will come later this week.

“The focus is on academics, no question. Still, they need to find a way to release some stress (at practice),” KU coach Bill Self said.

“Everything is a learning experience,” Self added, referring to his four freshmen players experiencing finals for the first time. “These guys that think they can study a couple of hours before a test will find out it’s not the way it works in college. We tell them, but until you go through finals, you haven’t experienced it for yourself. It’s normal to sleep 20 hours the whole week, total. It’s what most college kids do.”

Practice was held at the unusual hour of 8 a.m. Tuesday.

“It’s an intense week,” Self said. “This and the week in May (for spring finals) are the two most important weeks of the year. They come to college to get an education. These take precedent over everything. I hope our guys have a great week, setting the stage for a great Christmas and month of practice time where they won’t worry about books.”

The Jayhawks will play Pepperdine on Monday and Northern Colorado on Thursday, both at Allen Fieldhouse. There will be no games from Dec. 23 until 28. The team will take on New Orleans on Dec. 29.

First game of the new year is Jan. 4 versus Yale, followed by a Jan. 7 showdown against Kentucky. The Big 12 slate starts Jan. 11 at Colorado.

The next four opponents have a combined record of 6-24. Pepperdine (1-6) will play host to Long Beach State on Saturday, then travel to KU.

Northern Colorado (0-10) travels to Oregon State today, then travels to Loyola Marymount on Saturday and Northern Arizona on Monday, leading up to the KU contest Thursday.

New Orleans (2-4) travels to LSU, Purdue and Vanderbilt before taking on the Jayhawks.

Yale (3-4) has games against Hampton, Navy, Providence, James Madison, Rice, and Savannah State or Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before the KU game on Jan. 4.

¢ Health update: Sasha Kaun (flu-like symptoms) practiced on a limited basis Tuesday. Bloodwork taken showed he’s suffering from a virus, nothing out of the ordinary. Self said he the sophomore big man would be back to full strength soon.

¢ Floor burns: Self revealed an interesting stat from the Cal game to his Hawk Talk radio audience Monday night. The Jayhawks, who beat the Golden Bears, 69-56, dove on the floor 17 times for the basketball to seven times for Cal.

“That’s the difference between winning and losing right there,” Self said. “It shouldn’t surprise me and shouldn’t surprise our fans (that) two guys played 47 minutes and got on the floor nine times. The rest of the team played 153 minutes and got on the floor eight times. That would be Stephen (Vinson) and Christian (Moody). Coincidentally, they had two of their best games, too, so there’s a correlation between playing with reckless abandon and getting on the floor and being aggressive and performing better. That’s a great teaching point for the entire team.”