After ending the season on a disappointing note, coach Frank Martin said the Wildcats have to practice the things that made them sharp and made them who they were for the majority of the season.

"We had a heck of a regular season," coach Martin said. "We didn't finish it the way we played for three and a half months."

He said what they have to do is rely on the experience of the players who have been in that tournament environment before because it is a brand new set of emotions now. However, he said he cannot rely on the veterans too much.

"I probably did that way too much here toward the end of the year," Martin said. "I probably should have kept doing what I did most of the year, which is I play the guys that didn't make mistakes, not just rely on guys, but that's my job. I trust the upperclassmen; I still do, I'm not going to change that, but we are who we are."

Martin said he kind of adjusted on that late in the season and he cannot do that anymore. He also said playing time is not charity. With how intense the Monday practice was, as described by players, the team definitely got the message.

Freshman Wally Judge said he has only been in one postseason practice so far but can tell the difference in the level of competitiveness.

"We've been competitive all year, and it's always been a tough practice, but today, it was another level of toughness," Judge said. "Guys flying out of bounds, people getting banged up and coming right back in. People get injured and don't lean on it; they just suck it up and get back in on practice."

Forward Jamar Samuels mentioned an offensive rebounding drill and the intensity that characterized it.

"Victor Ojeleye came in and tried to roughhouse everybody," Samuels said. "We had an offensive rebounding drill with the bigs, and Vic had six or seven offensive rebounds, and Vic's only 6'4", 6'5", and all of us guys are over 6'7". Frank said Vic is going to play minutes, so we're looking forward to Vic playing in our Oklahoma State or Oklahoma game."

As far as what went wrong near the end of the season, Martin said the effort had lessened. Forward Curtis Kelly agreed with that to a point.

"I think our mental effort is not there," Kelly said. "Our physical effort I think is there; I think we're playing hard. But we're just not putting the puzzle together to come out with the victories. We have mental lapses on defense and on offense. Sometimes we're not doing the things that make us a great defensive team."

Guard Jacob Pullen said the team kind of got away from what it does as far as pressuring the ball, disturbing teams and not letting them run offense. He said Iowa State just did what they wanted and KU did too, and the team watched a little film and saw what we they doing and realized they really have to get back to getting after it.

"If people aren't excited to play in the postseason, especially after the opportunity we had last year just to play in the NIT, if people are not excited to be going back to the NCAA Tournament and have a chance to get another crack at KU, if we can win some games in Kansas City, they really shouldn't be playing anymore," Pullen said.