Kansas University’s basketball players have practiced four times in the last three days, since returning from their three-day Christmas vacation.

None of the Jayhawks experienced travel delays and were raring to go upon re-assembling for practice Friday night in Allen Fieldhouse, in the wake of Monday’s 25-point loss to Temple.

“The first practice was fine. The guys came back … all had good attitudes,” KU coach Bill Self said at Sunday’s holiday clinic for youths in Allen Fieldhouse.

“It’s not the most fun time of the year for players to be away from their families and their friends when everybody is back home for the holidays where they are from. They are here living in the gym, but we need to be doing that. The guys have had good attitudes so far, no question,” Self said.

Self said the Jayhawks, “watched the tape (of Temple loss) as a group the first night we got back so that way we could put it behind us and not talk about it again. There are a lot of reasons we didn’t play well. Obviously we didn’t get them ready to play. I think the (impending Christmas) break may have had a little bit to do with it. The biggest thing is we played with no enthusiasm, no energy and no passion and we looked really slow. Unfortunately for us it was a pitiful night for us.”

Self said in retrospect, it was “not very smart” to schedule a game against Lafayette on Saturday and Temple on the road Monday with basically little to no preparation time for the Owls.

Self said, “we only have to me one guy playing with great energy right now. Certainly we have to have everybody playing with great energy.”

That player, he said, is Jamari Traylor.

“From an effort standpoint, he brings it every day,” Self said.

For more on Sunday’s holiday clinic and Self’s comments about the Jayhawks, see Monday’s Journal-World and kusports.com.