From left, Quintrell Thomas, Marcus Morris, Markieff Morris and Tyshawn Taylor watch in the second half as UMass begins to close the game Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, Mo. ? Tyshawn Taylor was asked if Kansas University’s freshmen took a step back in their development in Saturday’s 61-60 loss to Massachusetts.

He didn’t hesitate with an answer.

“Definitely. Especially myself,” the freshman guard said. “I didn’t play good at all. I just did some things that I shouldn’t have done. There were a lot of things that I could have done that I didn’t do.”

Taylor talked about a block-out he missed that gave UMass a second-chance bucket. He also bemoaned missing some easy shots after finishing 1-for-7 from the floor.

Though Taylor was quick to take blame, he was far from the only freshman that struggled against the Minutemen.

As a whole, KU’s first-year players had their worst combined game since joining the Jayhawks. The freshmen hit three of 16 shots (19 percent), were 0-for-4 from three and 2-of-6 from the free-throw line. They also combined for just eight points and three assists in 51 minutes.

In KU’s last game, against Jackson State, freshmen were 14-for-24 (58 percent) from the field, combining for 36 points, 15 assists and 83 minutes.

“I just don’t see how you can’t be totally into anything going on when you’re young, in my opinion,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I don’t understand that.”

One of Self’s biggest beefs came on the defensive end.

The coach said that his team surrendered 16 early points to UMass because his players did not follow through on the scouting report.

“I studied it some. That’s a major part of the game,” forward Marcus Morris said. “We need to look over it more because we are missing our assignments, and we are forgetting where personnel is on the court. It was major.”

Self also seemed to lose some confidence in his young players. At the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, all five freshmen were on the bench at the same time.

“I put pressure on myself because I wanted to play good,” Taylor said. “I started off real slow, so when I got back in there, I just wanted to give the team something I didn’t do earlier in the game.”

Afterward, Self remarked that he hadn’t seen full effort from his players in recent workouts.

Taylor agreed.

“We haven’t been practicing with a lot of intensity. Well, some of us have, not all of us. Myself, I haven’t,” Taylor said. “We’ve just got to pick it up.”