Philadelphia 76ers point guard Allen Iverson – in one of the funniest sports tirades ever caught on tape – years ago made his feelings known about his disdain for practice.

It’s different in college, of course, where even the most talented players swear they’re telling the truth when they say practices are vital in the continued development of a team.

“I think it’s good to play a few games,” KU sophomore Julian Wright said of a season-opening stretch in which the Jayhawks played 12 games (counting exhibitions) in a stretch of 37 days, “but we’ve got a lot of work to do.

“It’s nothing like having a whole day to practice opposed to a 40-minute game to work on stuff. It’s good to see and gauge how stuff is going throughout the winter break in terms of our games and looking at film. But I know the coaching staff is definitely looking forward to working us out the whole winter break – and I think players are, too.”

The Jayhawks, who have a 10-day break between Saturday’s Toledo game and next Tuesday’s home battle against Winston-Salem State, do not have their minds solely on practice during this layoff.

It’s final-exam week, and Wright has a couple to take later this week. But starting Saturday, the Jayhawks will be allowed unlimited practice time (according to NCAA rules) until the start of second semester classes Jan. 19.

“It’s an important time for a team when there is nothing going on but basketball – no school,” Wright said. “This is the time we start getting better than last year – behind the scenes with no one watching.

“We have all day to practice and just get better. Look at film, shoot anything that coach feels we need to work on at that particular time. So I think this winter break is going to be really great for even the freshmen just for them getting a lot of reps, getting confidence. There’s going to be nobody around. It’s just going to be us competing, and it’ll just be friends off the court. But we’re going to be competing and trying to make each other better.”

The recent break in the slate has given the Jayhawks a chance to assess what’s happened thus far.

Obviously the season highlight is the overtime win over Florida in Las Vegas and win over USC on a night the Jayhawks had shooting woes. Lowlights include the home loss to Oral Roberts, road setback to DePaul in which KU blew a 14-point lead and last Saturday’s uninspired victory over Toledo in Kemper Arena.

“We’ve just got to maintain attack mode,” Wright said. “Just play like a team that’s hungry and just try to go out there and make some hustle plays. We’ve just got to match the intensity of our opponents.

“And say if we’re in the lead we really have to execute our offense and play against the clock as well. We sometimes haven’t done a good job of managing our shot clock, taking a lot of shots too early.

“Just little things like that, small things that coach has approached us with. Playing ahead is a lot harder with the level of pressure than of playing behind. I think we’ve put ourselves in that position a lot this year. We’ve just got to learn how to work through it.”

That’s what practice is for … no matter what Iverson indicates.

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More on leadership: Wright, who probably is KU’s most vocal player on the court, said junior Russell Robinson had made an effort to take charge.

“He’s starting to come along in terms of just providing a spark. Even grabbing players, getting their attention and talking to them and taking players off to the side – mostly guards – but he’s talking out there, and he’s getting better with that,” Wright said.

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Auction coming: KU’s athletic department will hold an online auction at 4 p.m. Thursday. Fans will be able to bid on items, such as the 1988 national championship banner that hung in Allen Fieldhouse, at www.kuathletics.com or www.cstv.com.

The auction will last 14 days and close on Dec. 27. Also to be auctioned: the basketball rim used by the men’s and women’s teams throughout the 1990s and both red and blue light fixtures that had hung in the building since 1955. These original light fixtures hung until 2004, when Allen Fieldhouse underwents its latest renovations. The lights to be auctioned still are fully functional.